


Falling In Love Without Consent

by orphan_account



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Attempt at Humor, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, GakuKai, GakuLuka only at the first chapter, Kaito is a cutie, LukaMei, M/M, Meiko is a (bit) tsundere, Multi, Mutual Pining, Rare headcanon: Luka is a jackass, Subtle Dating, Subtle flirting, because why not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-02-22 21:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23867236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Gakupo and Luka are a couple. Both work together in the same Talent Agency.During a meeting, they interview two new aspiring singers: Kaito and Meiko.Gakupo and Luka were a couple.
Relationships: Kaito/Kamui Gakupo, Megurine Luka/Meiko
Comments: 13
Kudos: 61





	1. Love at First Sight?

**Author's Note:**

> ※ Kaito and Meiko are siblings in this work; I've decided to use the fan given surname "Shion" since "Sakine" is an already considered surname for a fanloid of Meiko.

”Hurry up Gakupo, we’re gonna be late!” Luka yelled from the entrance of the building.

”Yeah yeah… I know,” soon, the latter hurried down the stairs. As he kicked his shoes in, he stopped at the front porch, only to be greeted with an arched brow from his partner. ”What?”

The woman seemed to pay close attention to the way his hair was combed; she narrowed her eyes at him, as if she demanded some sort of explanation from her partner.

“Don’t tell me you took  _ all _ that time only to braid it,” Luka pointed out the obvious in an outraged tone.

Gakupo only smirked at her as he picked one of his jackets out of a nearby hanging stand; they cohabited for an already considerable time, she had to have expected that.

“Really?” Luka let out a frustrated sigh. “I'll never get that  _ thing _ you have for your hairstyle,” she shook her head disapprovingly.

”I know you like it,” Gakupo said proudly. “And I dare to say even more than the ponytail,” he leaned down to give a quick kiss on her left cheek.

“Whatever,” Luka sneered at him in response.

With her hand, she quickly wiped where he had previously kissed her, she hurried him out from the front porch of the house as he chuckled to himself at her stubborn behavior.

”At least the  _ ponytail _ wouldn’t get us late to the meeting,” Luka snapped playfully as she closed the door of their building.

“A comeback doesn’t count as a comeback if it’s too late,” Gakupo smirked at her.

“... _ Whatever _ ,” Luka repeated herself as she sulked.

As they walked their way to their destination: there was a silence between both of them, but not the awkward type; Gakupo and Luka have been together since childhood, the bestest friends since kindergarten.

They used to live together in the Vocaloid Mansion with the rest of their co-workers, all equally talented singers, just like them. A few months ago, when they decided to take a next step in their relationship, they had to move out of the house; the rest of its residents couldn’t seem to want to give the new couple some privacy.

Besides the kisses and the occasional touches, their dynamic hasn’t changed much across the years; both of them felt like they could trust each other more than anyone else.

Luka stopped suddenly on her tracks.

”Oh, by the way,” she started following him again. “Why did Miku wanted us to do her job?” Luka asked, turning her head towards her boyfriend, walking on her left side.

The company both of them worked for searched for new talents and, with the excuse given by their currently most popular diva, Hatsune Miku, that: “We should be able to choose who we work with,” this new task was assigned to them.

Gakupo rose a brow. “You already asked me that,” he said. “Don’t tell me you forgot it,” his girlfriend grimaced at his accusation.

”Of  _ course _ I haven’t!” Luka uttered, pretending to be outraged. “I’m just confirming that  _ you _ haven’t forgotten it too,” she folded her arms with a smug.

Gakupo sighed, the idiot looked almost proud of her clear and bad use of sarcasm.

“They were her clients before,” he decided to explain it anyway, maybe this time she wouldn’t forget it. “The meeting we’re going to attend to was supposed to be hers,” Gakupo glanced lazily at his girlfriend, to see if she payed attention.

Apparently she wasn’t: Luka was already with her eyes focused on another direction; she looked to be currently more interested in two dogs, that sniffed each other at the other side of the street, than her boyfriend’s boring explanation.

Gakupo growled under his breath; even though Luka had asked him about something important as their job, she actually did not even cared about it.

Luka got the back of her head slapped, courtesy of her boyfriend, to try to make her pay attention to himself. “You can keep going,” she slowly rubbed where she got beaten. “Just be… straight to the point.”

Gakupo smiled proudly to himself at the effectiveness of his methods. “The reason we’re going to attend this meeting of today was because Miku—”

“Mickey,” Luka quickly corrected him.

“She already told you to not call her like that,” Gakupo sighed. “Anyway, she and the twins found out that a new amusement park was opening today, and they just  _ had _ to be there,” he finished with a frown, he felt frustrated at how he had to do someone else's job.

Luka laughed slightly to herself. “I swear I’ll never get how they take their job so lightly.”

“You know they’re in the show business for a much longer time than the two of us,” Gakupo uttered indifferently.

“I know all that crap, I’m not as  _ dumb _ as you think I might be,” Luka hissed at him between clenched teeth. “...What’s up with the shit-eating grin,” she narrowed her eyes as he smirked at her.

“Are you  _ really _ sure about that?” Gakupo arched a brow. “For what I remember, you were the one who failed third grade,” he said amusingly. “So yes, you  _ are _ dumb.”

“Am not!” Luka stomped her feet on the ground. “Anyway,” she cleared her throat in a way to try to recompose herself. “What I mean is that—  _ Damn _ , they do act like a bunch of spoiled brats sometimes.”

Gakupo chuckled at that. “They’re still young, let them be,” he smiled as he shrugged. “At least they keep up with their duties with utmost excellence in the company.”

“I think they act sometimes a bit  _ too much _ according their age,” Luka mumbled. “They should be more responsible!” She pumped her fists, decidedly.

“Aren’t you the one who skips reunions only to stay home watching television?” Gakupo asked defiantly. Luka shuddered in response. “I don’t think you’re the one with utmost decency to talk about others like that,” he scolded her.

“That’s… not the point,”  Luka scratched her cheek with a robotic sounding laughter.

The conversation they had distracted them and, soon, they’ve found themselves in front of their destination: the Vocaloid Talent Agency’s building.

They were a bit surprised to see that, even though they’ve arrived exactly at the time originally purposed: there was no one inside the small conference room assigned for the meeting.

And that wasn’t a very good sign; maybe their clients were going to be another one of those teenagers that couldn’t seem to understand that the music industry wasn’t just about singing.

”You know,” Luka slid her fingers across the dark wooden table, with slow steps, she made her way towards one of the white chairs there placed. “If they don’t show up in the first fifteen minutes, we’re allowed to leave,” she sat down.

As quick as Luka finished her sentence, Gakupo caught up a soft voice with his ears.

”I’m sorry Mei,” the silhouette of a young man could be seen through the glass door. “I thought I had memorized the directions,” he tilted his head downwards towards the ground.

High heels that clacked on the floor could be heard as someone clearly approached him. The duo inside the conference room quickly turned their attention to the scene just in front of their room.

”It’s okay, calm down,” a young woman could be seen patting the head of the other one in a reassuring way.

The woman muttered something to her companion before turning towards the glass door and pushing it open, revealing her red figure to the duo. Gakupo and Luka were both leaning towards the door, watching the scene in a curious way.

When the young woman realized that there were people already inside the room, her cheeks took a slight shade of pink, which managed to caught on Luka’s attention.

”I— We,” the woman cleared her throat, trying to shake off her clear embarrassment. “We’re sorry for our delay, my name is Shion Meiko,” she smiled and gestured for the young man outside to enter the room. “And this is my younger brother: Kaito.”

Kaito entered the room in a shy manner: he hid his flustered face a little behind his long scarf and his older sister Meiko.

“Hi,” he waved slightly. “I’m sorry for the nuisance, it’s my fault we’re late,” Kaito bowed apologetically, he tugged with his fingers at his long coat.

Meiko smiled softly at him and patted his back in a way to try to reassure him yet again.

Gakupo and Luka were dumbstruck; what was with that coy attitude?! They could only left their mouths agape as they watched the cute act in front of them.

The siblings started to feel a bit uncomfortable with the silence and all the intense stares that came from the duo. They shifted their weight impatiently through their feet as they expected some sort of reaction from them.

”Excuse me…?” Meiko uttered shyly, the red hue on her cheeks now more apparent because of the awkward situation. “Are we really in the right room?”

Both Gakupo and Luka snapped out of their trance immediately when they realized they might’ve been caught staring a bit too much.

”Ah— Sorry about that,” Gakupo cleared his throat nervously to try to recompose himself. “Please, you may sit if you want,” he gestured to the chairs placed in front of them with a smile.

Luka, who was still hooked because of the woman, now sitting in front of her, only seemed to get to her senses when Gakupo kicked her leg underneath the table.

”You—  _ Don’t do that _ !” Luka hissed angrily at him as she let out an audible groan with the subtle action, turning the attention of both of the siblings towards her strange behavior.

Heat gathered on her cheeks, that turned them into the same shade of pink as her hair when Meiko let out a shy chuckle. Luka smiled contently to herself at that same small action.

“We have a job to do,” Gakupo whispered lowly so only Luka could hear it as she nodded to his words.

“Although both of you might already know: I’m Megurine Luka,” she pressed her hand against her own chest. “And this is Kamui Gakupo,” Luka motioned to the man beside her.

“It’s a pleasure to have you two with us today,” Gakupo bowed his head at them, politely.

“Today we’re going to interview you two to see if you can manage to get a contract with one of our music producers,” Luka smiled as their meeting had started officially.

”You might be a bit confused on why we’re attending you two,” Gakupo followed. “Hatsune Miku couldn’t make it today, so we’re taking her job from now on.”

The duo tried to clear out the questions they might have inside their heads, while at the same time: trying their best about avoiding telling their clients the embarrassing truth of why the diva didn’t come.

“Well, shall we begin?”

  
  
  


Needless to say, the meeting went well.

Kaito was shy and quiet throughout most of the interview and, Meiko had to answer some questions for him, although she didn’t seemed to mind that at all. Aside from that, both of the siblings seemed to be already pretty acknowledged of the way the music industry worked.

They had a lot to thank Miku for all her teachings from their other encounters.

When the meeting came to an end, an inexplicable anxiety struck both Gakupo and Luka; somehow, they didn’t wanted to part ways just yet.

”H— Hey, look at that!” Luka pointed nervously at the small clock on the wall. “It’s already noon,” she laughed awkwardly.

“And what’s up with that?” Gakupo arched a brow, he turned to look together with the siblings at where she previously gestured towards.

As she took the opportunity that came when he turned back at her, Luka quickly sent him a desperate look, a silent way for her to beg him for his support for whatever she was about to do.

“Don’t you two want to fetch something to eat with us?” Luka asked, she didn’t minded at all the sudden shift from her professional vocabulary.

”Is that even like— Allowed…?” Meiko asked, slightly anxious as she quickly glanced at her brother, who nodded at her question in the same manner.

”At this point, both of you can already consider us like co-workers,” Gakupo smiled warmly at them. “We’re sure you two will get at least one of our producers hooked,” Luka nodded at his words.

”And you can treat us like equals,” Luka said with her index finger raised. “Even though we  _ are _ famous, it doesn’t mean we are untouchable,” she mocked a bit.

Meiko blinked repeatedly, catching up with the information they just shared.

“You’re right,” a soft blush adorned her cheeks in embarrassment. “Ok! It’s a good idea, then,” she beamed. “Me and my little brother,” Meiko turned her arm around his neck, lovingly, that pushed him down towards her in the process. “Still have got to eat something for the day.”

Kaito widened his eyes at her words; he looked ready to decline their invitation, if only the look on his face could tell them that. His reaction managed to raise the expectations of the rest of the people inside the room considerably.

”... _ Right _ ?” Meiko looked down at him with pleading, puppy eyes.

He sighed defeatedly and nodded in response.

”Wonderful!” Luka stood up abruptly and clapped excited, all the attention in the room turned towards her. “Not the fact that you still haven’t eaten, of course,” she laughed nervously to herself.

  
  
  


The couple couldn’t help, they kept stealing some discreet glances at the duo accompanying them during their whole trip towards the place they had suggested for them to have lunch at.

Kaito didn’t looked as shy as he was inside the building they previously were and, he even followed his sister with the same excitement as Meiko looked around and pointed everywhere of the unfamiliar environment with clear enthusiasm.

In what seemed like a short period of time, they’ve arrived at their destination: a small café.

”Wow,” Meiko whistled softly. “This place looks cozy,” she said in amazement, much to Luka’s amusement.

”Yes! This is actually our favorite establishment,” Luka stated cheerfully, to get the siblings’ attention. “We’re used to come here almost everyday,” she patted her chest, proudly. “Do you see the empty seats close to the window?”

They slowly turned their heads towards where Luka pointed with her index finger; two red bench seats that didn’t have anything special in particular, except for the view that could be seen from the window: the city’s centre.

“It’s ours,” Luka said with a cheeky grin as she started to move towards her self-proclaimed seats.

Gakupo couldn’t help, he chuckled a little seeing the confusion equally written all over the faces of each one of the siblings.

”What she’s trying to say is that there, is our favorite spot,” Gakupo made his way to sat himself beside his girlfriend. “Don’t be afraid, Luka won’t bite you if you sit here,” the latter stuck her tongue out at him.

Kaito and Meiko only followed to the motioned seats; with the way different personalities they showed in a professional environment and, the playful interactions, they couldn’t help but wonder what kind of relationship these two had.

”Sooo…” Luka swang her body on her seat, clearly in a good mood since they were at her favorite place. “What do you two wanna get?” She finally asked.

The couple watched as how Kaito picked up the menu settled on the table, he leaned together with his sister to analyze what there was. Meiko grimaced while she looked at something and, slowly approached her hand towards her pocket to get her wallet.

Meiko gulped as she took a look at the prices and opened to see inside her wallet with a certain nervousness, before disappointment struck her and made her sigh tiredly.

“Sorry, we’re a bit short on money,” Meiko shot an apologetically look at them.

“You don’t need to worry about that, it’s comprehensible,” Luka dismissed with her hand for Meiko to smile, embarrassingly. “We’ll pay,” Luka beamed cheerfully.

Meiko widened her eyes significantly as Kaito shuddered at the same moment.

”N— No, you don’t need to bother we— We—” Meiko tried to answer, but found herself stumbling through her words, amplifying her embarrassment.

Meiko looked at her brother, she clearly tried to find some kind of support, but Kaito just waved his hands in front of him, clearly nervous too. Gakupo and Luka could only smile at the scene that developed in front of them: so cute!

”It’s okay,” Gakupo started, a soft smile adorned his face. “It’s the least we can do to get acquainted with our new friends,” Luka nodded in concordance.

The siblings stopped their current panic to absorb his words. Their heads turned slightly as they looked at each other for a while; friends?

”Well, then…” Meiko rose the menu to the level of her mouth. “Don’t mind me?” Luka laughed softly at her shy behavior, leaving a pink tint on Meiko’s cheeks.

As he sensed the other’s awkwardness, Gakupo turned his attention back to Kaito.

”So,” he tried to get the young man’s attention. “What do you want? You don’t need to be shy,” Gakupo gave Kaito another one of his warm smiles.

”I— Well, I— I don’t think that—” Kaito could feel his face started to heat up, his ability to talk simply went away as he stumbled traitorously in his own words.

”Consider it! Consider it! We still haven’t eaten anything yet,” Meiko whispered on his ear, although the couple that accompanied them could still hear her. “They’re being really nice, little brother.”

“I don’t think it’s very nice to make others pay things for yourself, Mei,” Kaito whispered nervously to her. “And we just met them! It’s not a good first impression.”

“But they’re giving us the opportunity to eat everything we want to,” Meiko whined. “They’ll pay, after all,” she dismissed with her hand. “Use and abuse,” Meiko grinned cheekily.

”I’m not  _ that _ hun—” Kaito was interrupted abruptly as his stomach growled loudly.

A red hue from the same intensity as his sister’s jacket slowly started to appear on his face. He groaned shyly and lowered his head to meet the marble table, together with his hands, as his sister and Luka laughed loudly at the bad timing.

”It’s alright, don’t worry,” Gakupo tried to utter, it was difficult in the environment the laughter that the two women made. “Look, sorry if this idiot laughed,” he pulled forcefully on one of Luka’s ears, that growled at him.

Kaito slowly raised his head from the table, hands still covered his face in a failed attempt to hide his blush. He sighed and lowered his hands to lock eyes with Gakupo; a pout was adorning his lips.

”So, little brother,” Meiko stopped her laughter and smiled at him. “Now that you can’t deny, can you tell them what do you want to eat?”

Kaito brought his index finger up his chin as he pondered for a while, his blush had decreased considerably. “I want to eat something sweet,” he muttered softly.

”Like…?” Luka asked patiently as she looked at the young man seated in front of her.

”...Ice cream,” Kaito said; he could feel his cheeks starting to heat up again with the follow up awkward silence that happened after his response. “Then what about—”   
  
”That’s so adorable!” Luka suddenly squealed; she threw her body forward, as she almost lied across the table, only to hug an astonished Kaito on the other side.

The siblings, different from Gakupo, who didn’t seemed to care about the situation, could only stare dumbfounded at Luka’s weird and sudden change of behavior.

  
  
  


”Well, thank you two for the treat,” Meiko thanked them after they’ve spent a good couple hours in the café. Kaito nodded in agreement.

”It’s not a problem,” Gakupo smiled warmly at them. “We’re actually happy to be able to spend some time with you,” he looked specifically at Kaito, who only turned his flustered face to another direction.

”But hey,” Luka started. “Earlier you said  _ use and abuse _ , but you almost didn’t eat anything,” she pointed out about Meiko’s line from a while ago with a smirk.

”Oh— Well— Shut up!” Meiko uttered in a playful tone, arms crossed on top of her chest in the process. “But anyway, we’re really thankful for today, ” her expression softened as she smiled contently.

Kaito nodded yet again at her words. ”It’s good to know that we already have someone to rely on,” he said happily.

Gakupo and Luka’s eyes widened significantly with his line. A small dead silence was held between the four of them, the only noises that managed to arrive to their ears were the ones of the ambient sounds of the café.

Kaito stared confusedly at them for a while, before he finally realized what was previously said that might’ve triggered them. “If you wouldn’t mind it…  _ of course _ ,” he corrected himself.

They kept the chattering for a while longer, until both Kaito and Meiko announced they should return home soon, since it was a good hour by train.

”It was nice meeting you two, we hope we’ll be able to spend some more quality time together like this,” Luka winked, her flirtatious side suddenly kicked in.

The siblings laughed happily at the couple and parted ways with them, who decided to stay at the café. They watched through the window as Kaito and Meiko were clearly excited for the day, if their little jumps and sudden squeals could tell them that.

In a matter of seconds, the happy atmosphere that surrounded both Gakupo and Luka quickly turned into something, somehow, gloomy. Neither one of them seemed to be able to start a conversation after that. Both looked deep in thought to even seem to notice the other’s presence.

Gakupo sighed tiredly to himself.

He had known Luka for almost his entire life, she was a wonderful woman, his best friend since childhood, and now: his girlfriend. He knew her pretty well, more than any other and, heck! Even her mood swings were something he could almost predict at this point. Gakupo couldn’t manage to make anything to break her heart.

Luka slowly played with a strand of her long pink hair between her fingers.

Gakupo at first was like a big brother to her; he was kind, sweet towards her, yet, at the same time, playful and, a bit prideful too. He was a good guy. She doesn’t remember exactly why she came up with the idea that best friends would be a happier couple, but now she wondered if that was even true.

A friendship is nothing more than a friendship, after all.

Both of their thoughts turned to the siblings they had met earlier.

The idea of ruining such a long, trustworthy relationship, just because they fell in love with a pretty face was a bit too much. It was love at first sight, on top of that. How stupid could it be?

Cupid’s game was indeed something unpredictable.

The silent was kept for a while, they wondered if they could tell what they’ve been thinking for the past fifteen minutes. None of them wanted to break the other’s heart, it was something that they couldn’t forgive themselves if they did. Yet, something inside them said that it was for the better.

If they didn’t tell each other, what could happen if they betrayed the other’s trust?

Now they could feel themselves a bit more determined to tell their thoughts, but traces of hesitation of what they could possibly say afterwards if they received a negative reaction, were still there. The silence that surrounded them was extremely painful at this point.

After a deep breath, they decided to talk.

”I—” Both started at the same time. “You can go first,” they sighed almost simultaneously.

Luka started to annoyingly tap her pink polished nails in the white marble table placed in front of them, while Gakupo shifted impatiently his long legs underneath it.

A groan full of frustration escaped from their lips.

”I want to break up,” both said in unison, taking the two of them aback.

”Well,” Luka furrowed her eyebrows. “That was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be,” she let go of breath, that she didn’t even knew she was holding until now, as she leaned more on her comfy, red seat in the process.

”Yeah,” Gakupo sighed in relief. “So,” he stared lazily at the scenery that showed from the outside the window. “...Meiko?”

Luka only poked her nose as an affirmative signal. “...Kaito?” Gakupo nodded at her guess.

Both sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day.


	2. Already Moving in?!

Gakupo woke up with the rustling noise that came from downstairs; since the sound didn’t seemed to be stopping soon, he might as well just get up. As made his way down towards the first floor through the staircase: he peeked across the living room, only to see Luka, that watched television and took some notes on a notepad.

They broke up just three days ago, so Luka decided to start to sleep on the sofa of the living room, for both of them don’t need to share the same bed anymore.

Gakupo decided to ignore her for now and make themselves some coffee; although she seemed to have heard the noises in the kitchen, since when he got out of it she expected him with sparkling eyes.

”May I know what are you doing?” Gakupo asked as he reached her a mug.

Luka didn’t catched the question, so he just pointed at the item on her hands.

”Oh!” Luka choked on her drink. “That?!” She coughed from the lack of air. Gakupo slowly rubbed her back. “Well, you see...” Luka quickly took another sip of her coffee and put her mug on the small table in front of her. 

With her hand, she patted enthusiastically the free seat of the sofa on her side, a way to gesture for Gakupo to sit down, on top of the now throwed blanket that she slept with that night.

“Since we both got a thing for one of the siblings, I’ve started my infallible plan,” she looked at her best friend with a cheeky grin.

”What are you plotting?” Gakupo took a sip of his coffee. He sounded uninterested, but she did managed to catch his curiosity.

”Hear me out,” Luka turned off the TV and cleared her throat before she started. “I’ve spent most of the night watching some romantic movies,” she stated, proudly. “I’ve got some ideas of what to say and what to do,” Luka handed him the notepad.

On the writing block there was countless silly little drawings in some pages, which Gakupo decided to ignore for obvious reasons; the rest of it was full of pick up lines, some of them were cheesy, others were too… sexually suggestive.

”So? What do you think?” Luka nudged him on the ribs with her elbow. “It’s my magnum opus,” she said with a goofy smile as she waggled her eyebrows.

Gakupo only snorted at her, his look that clearly mocked her took off all of her cocky attitude.

”Ugh, _fine_ ,” Luka whined. “Now all of the efforts I managed to pull off during the night have been wasted,” she crossed her arms. “But now, talking about my _real_ plan…” Luka relaxed her shoulders and looked at her best friend in the eyes.

Admiration and curiosity sparkled inside Gakupo yet again; the moments where Luka would be serious about something were rare. In fact, not even when she declared herself to him she seemed to be so serious about the matter as she was now.

“We should really start by knowing them better,” she nodded to her own words.

”You’re right…” Gakupo closed his eyes, momentaneously, before opening them again. “I mean… what would happen if they were straight?” Luka smacked him playfully on the ribs.

“And me who thought _I_ was the one who made the bad jokes here,” she sneered at him.

“It wasn’t that bad,” he chuckled with her. “Besides—” He flipped to the next page of the notepad, his eyes widened instantly at what was written there. “...What is this?”

Luka only realized what he might’ve caught in his eyes after a few moments. When she did so, she snatched the thing from him immediately; her face went beet red in a matter of seconds.

”D— _Don’t look at it_!” Luka yelled at him; she hugged the notepad tightly on her chest, in a protective manner, ready to protect it at all costs.

He laughed amused at her exaggerated behavior. “I think that _maybe_ I wasn’t supposed to see that, but—” Gakupo subsided his laughter at Luka’s death glare. “...I didn’t know you were already thinking about marriage,” he smiled softly to his best friend.

Luka decreased her hold on the notepad, her face now had a calm expression and she looked, overall, relaxed.

”Yeah I…” Luka looked down at the writing in question, she slowly slid her fingers along it, letting out a dreamy sigh. “Megurine Meiko…” Luka closed her eyes, as if she tasted the words that came out of her mouth.

It was the first time Luka had felt something like that for someone else. As much as it was selfish of her own from deciding to date, of all people, her best friend, from the simple fact that she felt pressured by all her other friends that got married, she did manage to find love, after all.

“...Don’t you think that it sounds—” Luka opened her eyes and looked up at her friend, only to see how he held down his laugh. “How _dare_ you—!”

Gakupo burst into laughter yet again. Luka fumed with anger as she threw her cushions at him, some sort of mechanism of defense that, somehow, worked.

“Sorry— I didn’t mean to laugh,” Gakupo tried his best to stop. “But you did seem _really_ passionate right there,” he smirked as she stopped abruptly on her tracks.

Luka slowly folded her arms. ”Love _does_ that to you, idiot,” she scoffed. “Besides,” a cheeky grin made its way into her face. “Don’t tell me you haven’t already considered the two words: Kamui Kaito,” Gakupo froze. “... _Knew it_.”

  
  
  


There was a sudden knock at the front door of the Vocaloid Mansion; the diva Hatsune Miku hummed in a good mood as she came to open it, but she freezed on the spot when she realized who were the people that waited patiently in question. A fearful expression quickly made its way into her face.

”I— I’m sorry! I bet you two are angry for what I did but—” Miku threw herself on the floor in a begging position. “Please—! _Have mercy_!” She pleaded and looked up with teary eyes.

Gakupo and Luka slowly stared at each other: now that was unexpected.

”Hey,” Luka twitched her eye and kneeled to get to her level on the ground. “Calm down,” she helped Miku get up. “We’re not mad at you,” Luka tried to reassure her.

”Even though I’ve left my job to the two of you?” Miku sobbed. Gakupo only nodded. “Even though I haven’t brought anything from the amusement park to any of you?” Luka nodded again. “Even though—”

”Okay, you can stop now, we don’t hold any grudge against you,” Gakupo said between gritted teeth; he started to clearly grow annoyed.

Miku quickly recomposed herself and dried the fake tears that runned down her face, she fixed up her clothes and cleared her throat before she started again.

”What are you two doing here, then?” Miku asked like nothing had happened beforehand.

”Gumi made me bought her a new game she wanted,” Gakupo showed the plastic bag he carried, only now noticed.

”Oooh,” the diva leaned over and looked at the contents of the bag in amazement, she wondered if Megpoid would let her play it too in another time. “Do you want me to call Meg here?” Miku asked with a big smile plastered on her face.

”No need,” Gakupo dismissed with his free hand. “Gumi has a sixth sense for games,” he stated. “Actually, I bet she was watching the window impatiently just now,” they heard quick footstep noises on the second floor. “See?”

”You can go back to do whatever you were doing, we’re sorry for interrupting you,” Luka said with a smile. Miku nodded at her and got back from where she came from: the living room.

As soon as they entered the house, footsteps could be heard. Gakupo and Luka turned their heads towards the stairway: Megpoid Gumi was quickly descending the stairs, she almost tripped at her own feet in the process.

While she still panted from the run, Gumi stopped right in front of them, extending her arms in a inviting way. Gakupo shrugged and started to walk towards her.

”N— Not you,” Gumi said breathlessly. “The game,” she pointed with her index finger towards his bag. Gakupo growled under his breath and hugged her anyway.

”Glad to see you too,” he said mockingly. “Here’s your ga—”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Gumi snatched the plastic bag from his hands as soon as he approached them. Hurried steps were taken as she quickly started to ascend the stairs.

“Hey, what do we say when people give things to us?” Gakupo snapped annoyingly at her.

Gumi stopped on her tracks at the top of the staircase, turning her head slightly to look down on him. ”Already in time,” she smirked mischievously and locked herself again inside of her room.

Gakupo sighed in frustration, he shook his head disapprovingly before he decided to turn his attention back at Luka, who was watching the scene with an amusing expression; he rose a brow at that.

”I know that you’re going to say that she’s like a little sister to you…” Luka put her hands up to her hips.

“...But to you she’s only a _spoiled brat_ ,” he finished her line for both of them to snort.

**”Now that wasn’t very nice to say.”**

Gakupo and Luka quickly snapped their heads towards the direction where the familiar voice came from: yet again, the stairway. They didn’t expect to hear that voice too soon, much less in the Vocaloid Mansion.

Shion Meiko descended the staircase carefully, much to Luka’s amazement.

She seemed to recently have gotten out of the bath: her hair was wet, that framed a bit of her face, with water droplets that ran down her neck, and hitted a towel there placed. Meiko wore a black top tank and white sporty shorts. It was clearly a casual look.

Luka swallowed.

She felt how her face grew red, her lips trembled in the goofiest smile she had ever made in her life. Probably the stupidest look she could have on her at this moment, but at the same time: she didn’t really care. Her heart seemed to want to leapt out of her chest through her mouth.

Gakupo sighed to himself; his best friend was a total mess.

”It’s nice to see you again,” he smiled at Meiko. “I’m a bit confused though: what are you exactly doing here?” Gakupo crossed his arms, but his tone was friendly and amused.

”Why wouldn’t I be at my own house?” Meiko shrugged in the same manner.

Both of them were taken aback by that; Gakupo unfolded his arms, that fell on his sides. Words didn’t seemed to come out of their mouths.

”You two didn’t saw the message we left?” Meiko sensed their clear confusion. ”It was just yesterday we sent it,” she stated worryingly.

We? Was Kaito here too? Gakupo could feel his heart beat faster in expectation.

”No, I haven’t checked my inbox yet,” Gakupo said. “Besides, Luka turns off her phone when she isn’t using it,” he gestured at his friend with his thumb.

Both turned their heads to the latter, who stood there awkwardly at the corner of the entrance. When she realized the attention was on her, she waved and muttered a quick greeting, clearly nervous.

Meiko chuckled at her unusual shy behavior.

”Well, now you’re acting like Kaito,” she mocked. “Oh!” Meiko suddenly clapped her hands. “I bet you two would like to talk to him too, he can actually explain the situation better than me,” she laughed to herself. “He’s in the kitchen preparing lunch.”

Meiko excused herself, she turned on her heels to start to ascend the stairs to dry her, still, wet hair. The duo stood there for a few more moments, they smiled like two idiots.

Luka was the first one to cut out the silence. ”Aah~ She’s too perfect for me,” she said dreamingly and clasped her hands together.

”Yeah, and you’re a disaster,” Gakupo sneered, he clearly made fun of her out of character behavior earlier in front of her crush.

”Shut up?!” Luka shouted, confusingly. “You know I’m a passionate person about my emotions,” she crossed her arms and sulked. He chuckled in response.

  
  
  


After they got rid of their coats, the two of them followed up to the living room. Miku and the Kagamine twins watched some weird live action show on television. When the younger residents of the house noticed their presence, they only waved at the duo and turned their attention back towards the device in front of them.

As they arrived at the american styled kitchen, they sat down on the benches to see Kaito bent over, who messed with the stove.

When he stood up and turned on his heels, he flinched and recoiled in shock from Gakupo and Luka, that watched him carefully. Miku already told them all they were in the house, but he didn’t hear them approaching!

Kaito sighed, he could feel his cheeks were a bit hot because of his previous instantaneous reaction. “I didn’t hear you two coming in, you both startled me,” he mumbled with a pout.

Gakupo and Luka chuckled softly at that.

”We heard from your sister that you two just moved in,” Gakupo uttered lazily to watch more closely what Kaito wore.

Apron?!

Yes, you might want to use that to not get your clothes dirty while you cook.

But the item in question…

It was white and short, with a lace tied up in a ribbon on the back and, the most amusing part: ruffles, at its end. Clearly one of Miku’s aprons. Maybe the residents of the house weren’t expecting for both of the siblings to move in so suddenly, so they definitely didn’t had too much time think about something so little like what Kaito would use when he cooked.

But it was nice, and Gakupo could only appreciate it.

”...Gak...po? ...Are you ok?” Gakupo snapped out of his trance when he heard the concerned voice calling him.

”Y— Yeah, sorry,” Gakupo scratched the nape of his neck. “Just a bit tired,” he laughed awkwardly. His eyes caught on the can of beer on Kaito’s hands. “...Do you drink too?”

”Hmmm?” Kaito tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Oh—! I do— Actually, sometimes— But not always,” he stumbled on his words. “This is actually for Meiko,” he raised his index finger. “The hair dryer sounds stopped, so I’m assuming she already finished getting ready, which means she’ll probably want something to drink,” Kaito finished with a bright smile.

Gakupo and Luka were slightly shocked by that; even though Kaito seemed to be a bit quiet and zoomed out sometimes, he really does pay attention to his environments.

He excused himself and got upstairs to meet with his sister.

Gakupo sighed as he watched how the other one left the kitchen space they were in. When he turned his head to the bench occupied on his side, he met face to face with a smug Luka; it probably wasn’t something good.

”Sooo…” Luka waggled her eyebrows. “Why haven’t you taken a picture? It would last longer,” she mocked, she clearly enjoyed the opportunity of revanche she had on him.

Gakupo muffled a growl from the back of his throat. ”Shut up,” he poked her forehead with annoyance.

”Oh _c’mooon_ …” Luka whined. “You were _clearly_ staring,” Gakupo sent a death glare towards her. “I know he’s cute, but have you at least heard a thing of what he had to say?”

Gakupo blinked several times. “Was he talking?”

“Really?!” Luka stared at him with wide eyes. “You,” she sighed and shook her head in disapprovement. “They’re moving into the Vocaloid Mansion because they managed to get a contract with one of our music producers.”

”I already know that.”

”Shut up and let me finish,” Luka hissed at him. “As we learned a few days ago,” she raised her index finger. “They were living pretty far away from our agency, so that’s why they needed to move to a more accessible distance.”

Gakupo absorbed the information. “So, they’ve discussed with the company about the issue,” Luka nodded excitedly at him. “...And they immediately moved them in,” he arched a brow.

”Bingo!” Luka snapped her fingers. “And you can’t even imagine what’s the best part,” she clapped her hands excitedly. “They still haven’t unpacked!” Gakupo quickly got her intentions. “I believe that’s a _golden_ opportunity right the—”

Just as Luka was ready to finish her line, the ones who were the current subject of the conversation entered Gakupo’s line of sight; he quickly glanced at them and shutted his childhood friend up with one of his hands.

”Heya,” Meiko tried to get their attention. “My little brother told me that he passed on the information you two were seeking,” she moved closer to the garbage bin to dispose her now, empty can. “...But something caught on my attention,” she turned to them.

The duo felt their bodies tense at the sudden change in her tone; Meiko had a serious face on, that couldn’t be something good, at all.

“...He said Luka told him that you two used to live here not too long ago,” Meiko arched a brow. “Why did you move out?”

Gakupo shot a glare at Luka in a way to say: “You asked for it, now you answer it.”

Luka flinched visibly and looked at the siblings with a desperate smile on her face. ”It’s just that we decided to live together,” Kaito and Meiko blinked astonishingly at her.

An awkward silence was kept for a few moments, it wasn’t a very comfortable environment to be at the time. Luka tensed up even more at the idea that she might’ve said something that would make them ask even more questions.

”Why...?” Kaito slowly asked with furrowed eyebrows. Meiko nodded.

Luka felt how Gakupo kicked her leg strongly underneath the balcony.

“As roommates!” Luka added in a way too exaggerated tone. “Y— You know, we thought that dividing our taxes between each other would be an interesting and fun experience,” she laughed nervously with herself.

The siblings stared at each other for a while, clear confusion was written all over their faces. Nevertheless, both of them seemed to have bitten the lie.

Luka sighed in relief.

”Oh…” Kaito made up a small noise that managed to catch up their attention; he got closer to his sister and mumbled something on her ear.

Meiko brought her hand up to her chin and shifted her weight impatiently through her feet with closed eyes. As she pondered, Gakupo and Luka watched the scene with curiosity before she suddenly clapped her hands together and nodded to her brother.

”Kaito wants to ask if you two could help us unpack,” Meiko finally spoke. “You don’t need to do it if you don’t want to, of course!” She added, rather quickly.

Here’s the opportunity!

”It wouldn’t be a bother,” Gakupo said as they got up from their seats. “We wouldn’t mind, you two can go up first,” he smiled.

The siblings smiled in excitement and leaved the scene. Luka watched carefully their way out, she slowly nodded to herself, before she delivered a strong kick at the back of Gakupo’s knees, who let out a low groan at the sudden act.

”Listen here,” Luka whispered menacingly. “I know what you’re thinking but, _no_ , it’ll ruin our plan,” she narrowed her eyes at him.

”What the hell would you suggest, then?!” Gakupo whispered between clenched teeth.

”I purpose for us to switch,” Luka said. Gakupo simply rose a brow at her. “I’ll help Kaito, and you’ll help Meiko, got it? If we get to know their tastes through each other, we’ll have more chances,” she finished, decisively.

Gakupo seemed to have caught up with the idea.

“So, you’re saying for us to be as subtle as possible? Fine,” Gakupo growled under his breath. “But if they find out we’ve been trading information,” he pointed at her. “The one explaining everything will be _you_ ,” they grinned at each other.

  
  
  


”Wow!” Luka shouted excitedly. “This brings back so many memories,” she threw herself on the single bed the room had.

Kaito chuckled softly. ”Was this your bedroom?” He peeked through some boxes at Luka, sprawled on his bed, face down.

Luka turned around to look at Kaito; he kneeled on the ground, he faced the opposite direction and took multiple clothes out of a cardboard box, to fold them in a pile next to him.

”Not… really,” she slowly sat up. “It was actually Gakupo’s.”

Luka could see for a brief moment Kaito flinched and quickly stopped at that, but returned to his task afterwards; she could only wonder why.

Her eyes immediately snapped at the direction of something Kaito tried to hide.

”Hoho,” she laughed arrogantly as she got up from the bed. “What’s _this_ ~?” Luka snatched the object in question off of his hands from over him, a cocky smug adorned her face.

Kaito blushed furiously. ”Luka! Don’t look at it! Take it back!” He said a bit too loudly for his own tastes, clearly an amusing reaction to her.

”Oh, c'mon,” she teased with a dismissal of her free hand. “What could be so ba—” Luka abruptly cut her own words, she finally payed attention to the item that hanged on her left hand.

There it was a keychain. It was an ice cream cone: baby blue color, white topping and multicolored confectionery; it had a cute smiling face.

Luka could feel how herself trembled slightly. Her right hand was brought up to cover her mouth, with her eyes glued to the keychain.

”Luka…” Kaito groaned in a pleading way; both of his eyes were almost closed, his lips in a thin line and his face beet red.

Luka could only constantly look alternatively between both the keychain and him.

”M— _Meiko_ gave me that...” Kaito managed to mutter, but he didn’t look at her in the eyes.

Luka took her hand off her mouth and slowly kneeled to get to his level on the ground; she took a deep and recomposing breath, before she locked her eyes with Kaito’s.

”It’s okay,” Luka uttered softly. “I won’t judge you,” she placed the keychain on his hands. “It’s just that…” Both of her hands found its way to Kaito’s shoulders. 

Luka closed her eyes momentaneously and took, yet, another deep breath before she started to spoke up again. “It is just so _cute_!” Luka finished with a thumbs up.

Kaito wished secretly the ground swallowed him up at that moment.

  
  
  


”Where should I put these?” Gakupo asked as he carried some cardboard boxes.

Meiko looked up from her own pile of various stuff settled on her bed.

”Oooh you can give me that one on the top,” Gakupo leaned down to make her able to reach it. “Thank you,” she smiled. “It is a bit fragile so you gotta be _extra_ careful with it,” Meiko said in a playful tone as she put the box on top of her desk.

”What is it?” Gakupo placed the rest of the boxes in a corner of the room.

”An...” She made a brief suspense as she opened the box. “... _Aquarium_!” Meiko uttered cheerfully as she took the mentioned object on her hands with a big smile. “I really like fishes, they’re really pretty to me,” she nodded to herself.

Gakupo only snorted as he took look at the pink walls of the room.

”What’s so funny about it?” Meiko asked confusingly.

”Nothing,” Gakupo smirked to himself. “It just seems to fit a lot with this bedroom,” Meiko rose a brow at him. “It used to be Luka’s,” he finished.

Meiko freezed on the spot, she still holded the aquarium with her hands in a firm grip. A few blinks of her eyes were necessary for her to snap out of it; weird.

”That’s… nice,” she slowly added in an unknown tone.

Putting the aquarium back in the box, Meiko turned back towards her pile of things settled on top of her bed. Gakupo stared at how she did her duty with a soft smile on her lips; that was, at least, an interesting reaction.

He got an idea.

”I am a bit curious...” Gakupo tried to catch her attention. “Earlier you looked really interested in why me and Luka moved out of the house,” Meiko tensed at that. “May I know why?”

Her head slowly rose from the pile on her bed to look at him with a dumbfounded expression on her face. If Gakupo could describe it, he would probably say it looked like she just saw a ghost.

Meiko licked her dry lips nervously in a way to try to choose her words carefully.

“It’s just that I— I was a bit worried that you two...” A pink tint rose to her cheeks. “...Might’ve dropped out of the music industry?” Meiko uttered uncertainly and averted her gaze to the side.

“What would even make you think like that?” Gakupo chuckled.

“I mean… It’s already a long time since you two last released a song and I…” Meiko trembled her lips and looked, overall, a bit inquiet at her spot on the ground.

Gakupo widened his eyes at the way she reacted. He had seen that attitude countless times before; was Meiko also a fan of them…?

”...Me and Kaito really wanted to see one of your live performances,” Meiko muttered in an almost inaudible way.

But Gakupo heard it clearly; for now, he decided to keep that information to himself.

Meiko tried to take off the heat that quickly gathered on her face in big amounts by slapping both of her cheeks, constantly.

“Anyway! Let’s keep unpacking!”


	3. Let's "Hang Out"

”So so so~!” Luka was visibly excited. “What have you learned about her?” Her eyes sparkled in expectation.

Gakupo and Luka were at their favorite café, on their self-proclaimed spot. It made already a few hours since they had leaved the Vocaloid Mansion after they helped Kaito and Meiko unpack; they also took opportunity to have lunch with the rest of the residents of the house.

Well, at least most of them: Megpoid Gumi didn’t leaved neither her room nor her new game aside.

”Not too much,” Gakupo pondered. “She does have an aquarium, though,” he remembered. “Meiko said she really likes fishes,” the memory came to his mind.

”Ahh~” Luka let out a dreamy sigh. “We’re already settled to marriage, then,” she waggled her whole body left and right. “I’ll totally make her Megurine Meiko,” Luka played with the straw of her strawberry milkshake.

“So you  _ are _ planning to keep up with the idea of the notepad,” Gakupo muttered and sighed to himself.

“Of course!” Luka slammed her fist forcefully into the table. Gakupo quickly got his black coffee up from there for it not to spill. “...I bet she’ll look like an angel in a white wedding dress,” Luka calmed herself down and zoomed out of the conversation in her daydreaming babbling.

Gakupo shook his head disapprovingly. ”Ok, then, can we  _ please _ continue the conversation?” Luka only blowed on the straw, making countless bubbles inside her cup, but didn’t made any further protests. “What have you learnt about Kaito?” Gakupo asked with a smirk.

Luka almost choked on her drink as she freezed on the spot; what have she learned? Shit.

“A— According to my research,” she rubbed on her temples. ”I— I have learned… that hmmm...” Luka tried to think about something, she needed it, and quickly. “...He really does likes ice cream!” Luka pointed out the obvious with a snap of her fingers.

”I already knew that,” Gakupo arched a brow, his smirk widened at every second that passed as her tension started to rise. “What else?”

Dammit, Luka tried to remember all she had asked him during the unpacking, but the only memories that came to her mind were the ones she teased Kaito; she didn’t follow up with her own plan!

While she pulled and messed nervously with the strands of her hair in frustration, Gakupo sighed.

”I asked this on purpose,” he tried to get her attention. “I’ve heard your screams from across the house,” she shuddered. “And I’ll get straight to the point,” Luka gulped nervously. “I don’t like you teasing him,  _ stop it _ ,” he finished with a scowl.

Luka groaned, for a moment she thought it was something even more serious than that.

”Oh  _ c’mooon _ ,” she whined and threw her upper body on the table. “You know I’ve got a soft spot for cute things,” Luka sulked.

Gakupo let out a tired sigh. “Whatever you say, then,” he took a calming sip of his coffee.

“And I would never cheat on  _ my _ woman,” she stated for him to snort. “I’ve gotta admit it though: you do have good taste, Kaito knows how to cook really well,” Luka nodded proudly at her own statements.

”If you don’t stop doing that I’m going to start to think you’ll try to steal him from me,” Gakupo grinned at her. 

”Already possessive, I see,” she grinned back.

”Yeah yeah… whatever,” he dismissed with his hand. “Haven’t you learned at least  _ one _ new thing about him?” Gakupo asked.

”No, there wasn’t much for me to base off his interests…” Luka brought a hand up her chin. “Though, he  _ did _ have a lot of clothes in those boxes,” she pondered a little. “Maybe you could take him to a clothing store and buy him some ice cream afterwards,” Luka winked playfully at him.

”I only asked you about his interests,” Gakupo pinched the bridge of his nose. “I did not ask you to plan out my date...” Luka giggled to herself.

Gakupo softened his expression. “...Thank you.”

  
  
  


”So, what do you think about it?” Kagamine Rin asked lazily, her head lied on the table she was sitting in front of.

”Well...” Kagamine Len watched carefully the scene displayed in front of them. “It does seems like it,” he nodded to his twin sister on his side.

They were all in a conference room, they’ve discussed about Kaito and Meiko’s live debut with a few more executives; it made already some time both Gakupo and Luka were clearly trying to invite the two of them out.

”What are both of you chatting about?” Hatsune Miku popped into the twins’ conversation suddenly.

”Rin was talking about how Gakupo and Luka are obviously flirting with the novices,” Len pointed at the four of them, who were oblivious of their chattering.

”Flirting, you say?” Rin sneered. “I think they’re trying to invite the two of them out already,” she smirked.

”Oooh...” Miku let out a sound in amazement. “Yep, it does seems like it,” she nodded to herself. “I’m happy for them, but...” Miku saddened her expression slightly. “They just broke up two weeks ago… it’s weird how they recovered a bit too fast,” she mumbled with a pout.

”Well…” Rin pondered. “They  _ did _ say that the breakup was mutual,” Miku gasped softly at that. ”Don’t you think that…”

They looked alternatively at the group of adults and each other with huge, sparkling eyes. ”That’s so romantic!” The girls squealed happily.

”I feel kind of sad for the two of them…” Len sighed, both of the girls stopped and looked at him in confusion. “It’s something so…  _ in the face _ ,” his twin sighed.

“That’s why I told you that to start with,” Rin shook her head. “It surprised me  _ you _ haven’t noticed it earlier.”

“...That’s not the problem,” Len laughed awkwardly. “It’s just that Kaito and Meiko look so oblivious about it,” he pointed out. “Do you think Gumi also notices it?” Len turned to Miku.

”No, I don't think so, I only snoop for her games on her room when she isn't home,” Miku shrugged, both of the twins only arched a brow at her confession. “Oh—! You mean about them?!” Miku realized their current conversation. “I guess you could say that, then,” she nodded to herself.

”Of course you can,  _ dumbass _ .” Megpoid Gumi jumped into the conversation. “And you can play it now,” she threw her cell phone at Miku. “If you manage to recharge it.”

Miku smiled brightly and leaved the room in an excited run, she was clearly going to look out for a recharger. Gumi sat in front of the twins in the table and took her Game Boy out of her pocket.

Rin and Len stared at each other, even though her abilities to manipulate the diva were impressive, that wasn’t what they wanted to discuss about.

“So…” Rin tried to start a conversation. “Do you think they have a chance?”

Gumi signaled with her hand for them to wait. The twins watched as she smashed furiously some buttons of the console with an angry expression on her face; it kept like that for a few moments before she suddenly sighed and looked up from her game.

“I think so,” Gumi stared at the direction of their current subject, still oblivious of all the talking about them. “They’re quite the charmers, I bet in no time they’ll fall for their  _ charisma _ ,” she scoffed and turned back to the twins. “If,” she smirked. “They already haven’t fell for it.”

The Kagamine twins widened their eyes at her words. All the attention in the room quickly turned to the commotion the four adults who were chattering for quite a while started to cause so suddenly.

”Yes!” Luka shouted as she pumped both of her fists into the air. “We’re going to that bar after we leave this place, then,” she high fived with Meiko.

”After this we’ll go shopping, right?” Gakupo looked down at Kaito.

”So, we’re going to hang out?” Kaito asked enthusiastically, Meiko nodded expectantly with a huge smile at his words.

Gakupo and Luka glanced at each other. ”Yeeeah,” both said slowly and awkwardly for the siblings to squeal.

Rin and Len sighed as they watched the scene; how can someone be so dense about that?

  
  
  


”Wooow…” Kaito gasped with huge, sparkling eyes. “This place is gigantic!” He raised his arms up high.

After the meeting ended, Gakupo and Kaito made their way to the city’s mall to spend some time together. At the same time: Luka took Meiko to a popular bar close to their favorite café for some drinks.

Gakupo chuckled at his childish behavior. ”Where do you want to go?” He asked with a smile. “I’ll pay for today.”

Kaito quickly turned around to look at him; he had a big and bright smile plastered on his face, clearly excited to go shopping soon.

”I want to—” Kaito cleared his throat to calm himself down. “Actually, you can choose,” he blushed a bit. “I don’t really know what stores there are or what are the best places too,” he looked down. “So I was wondering if…”

Gakupo watched silently as Kaito fidgeted around with his own fingers; there it was, the shy attitude he so adored about him.

“...You could show me around?” Kaito looked up at him with pleading eyes.

Gakupo felt Cupid’s arrow piercing through his chest straight to his heart.

Even though they’ve met only two weeks ago, Gakupo really wanted Kaito to feel more comfortable around him as soon as possible; but Kaito made clear advancements: even if he seemed to be extremely hesitant about it, he finally asked something to him directly!

Kaito noticed his unusual quietness and considered that maybe his request was something bothersome for him; Gakupo was freezed on the spot: maybe he was thinking about way to carefully deny him, without hurting his feelings, since he was a really kind person.

”You don’t need to do it if that bothers you,” Kaito averted his gaze to the side.

Gakupo snapped out of his trance and blinked several times at him. ”No— It’s not a bother,” he scratched his cheek. “I was just thinking about what places I should take you,” Kaito turned at him with wide eyes and a pink tint on his cheeks.

”Anywhere you take me I’m sure will be fine...” Kaito muttered in an inaudible tone.

Gakupo rose a brow. ”What was that?” Kaito quickly shook his head. “Anyway,” he hugged Kaito by his shoulders. “Let’s look around to see if we can find anything that you’d like,” Gakupo looked down at him.

Kaito nodded happily.

  
  
  


”Maaan... I was really worried the other residents of the house would be a pain in the ass,” Meiko was visibly drunk, all the traces of her coy attitude seemed to have disappeared.

Luka could only laugh, she clearly found it amusing: Meiko had an unexpected side that seemed to be awaken only by alcohol.

”Did you two really got out of there only because you felt like it?” Meiko pointed out with her index finger raised. “Or did they annoyed you both till you had to run away from there?”

Meiko was serious about the matter and, she even had an arched eyebrow to demonstrate that, but the bright red blush on her cheeks and the slight pout only contradicted her tone and made it hard to believe.

”You could say that,” Luka said with a snort, she remembered all the times the younger residents of the house would try to sneak into her or Gakupo’s room.

”I knew it!” Meiko slapped her knee. “Was it the twins? I bet that were the twins.”

They shared a good round of laughs. For hours they kept talking, Meiko would not keep her mouth shut at any moment, but Luka didn’t minded: she loved seeing her so enthusiastic like that, she only listened and smiled contently at her during all that time.

Meiko choked on the last sip of her drink suddenly when she saw the bartender that came towards them both. That alone managed to alarm Luka considerably.

”Yooo Haku!  _ Haku _ !” Meiko slapped the counter repeatedly in a cheerful way.

”You’ve drank too much,” the bartender write on their bill. “I’m not giving you more,” she sticked the note on Meiko’s forehead.

”Hnng,” Meiko groaned. “It’s not that,” she pouted. “I was going to present you to my friend, Luka~” Meiko let her head smash against the counter in a loud  _ thud _ .

Haku sighed and looked at the pink-haired woman who sat on the left side of her best friend. Luka laughed awkwardly and waved at her before both turned their attention back at Meiko.

”Meiko,” Haku pronounced to make her drunk friend look at her; the latter only groaned with her head still lying on the counter, a signal she was listening. “I already know her.”

Meiko quickly shot her head up from its previous position. “What?!” She shouted, alarmed.

”Yes, she’s famous,” Haku said with a straight face.

Meiko groaned in frustration. ”Not like that,  _ idiot _ ,” she mumbled and supported her chin down on the counter.

“I’m surprised you could endure Meiko in this...  _ state _ ,” the bartender turned to Luka, seated on the side of her friend. “I’m Yowane Haku,” she introduced herself with a polite bow. “Nice to meet you, Luka,” Haku greeted her.

Luka laughed amusingly. “Nice to meet you too,” they shook hands. “And you don’t need to worry about that,” she looked back at the zoomed out Meiko.

The artificial lightning of the place illuminated her warm color palette in harmonical yellow tones. Meiko had her pinkish lips opened slightly as she looked ahead of her with desire at the beer bottles settled on the other side of the counter.

Luka felt how her expression softened almost instantaneously at the sight.

“...It’s not a bother,” Luka muttered. “I actually find it quite interesting how her personality suddenly changes at moments like these,” she chuckled softly as she while brushed some of Meiko’s brown hair strands with her fingers.

Meiko groaned a little more and turned her head at their direction to press her cheek on the balcony; she started to blink more slowly as Luka still brushed her hair in a calm manner.

Her eyelids started to seem like they were getting heavier, the noises of people chattering all around them coming from their surroundings started to become muffled to her ears, and the only contact she felt was the one of the fingertips that brushed her hair strands.

Meiko decided to finally close her eyes and let her companion care for her.

Yowane Haku watched silently the scene in front of her. A thin smiled formed on her lips as she looked at how Luka treated her drunk friend with utmost care and affection.

The last time she had tried to comfort Meiko, her patience managed to ran down, causing a bar fight in the establishment they were at the time. Those were precious and nostalgic memories she was going to keep with her for her entire life.

“She may act tough sometimes,” Yowane muttered while looking at Meiko. “...But she can also be really vulnerable,” Haku stared back at Luka. “...So she’ll need someone to rely on,” Luka blinked repeatedly at her. “Take care of her,” she finished with a known smile.

A pink tint rose to Luka’s cheeks and she slowly nodded to her words. Haku laughed slightly and waved her hand at them in dismissal to excuse herself and get back to work.

As Luka waved back, she felt how Meiko shifted underneath her other hand; she only now realized she was still brushing the other’s hair and slowly took her hand off of her head. Meiko, with all the dizziness caused by the alcohol, raised herself and yawned.

Luka chuckled softly. ”I think you’re sleepy,” she looked at Meiko with tenderness.

Meiko nodded and tried to open her eyes.

She blinked a few times, to try to accommodate her vision to the artificial lightning of the bar and, leaned on the other’s shoulder. Luka took the opportunity to take off the still sticked note on her forehead.

Meiko closed her eyes for a moment to feel the body heat being transmitted by her friend. ”Luka…?” Meiko muttered sheepishly.

”Hmm?” Luka hummed and looked down at her. “...What is it?” She decided to ask when the other one didn’t respond. “You don’t need to be hesitant,” Luka smiled softly. “You can trust me to whatever it is you want to say,” she shaked Meiko’s shoulder slightly.

”Have you ever,” she slowly started. “...Fallen in love?” Meiko blushed at her own question.

Luka freezed. Her heartbeat accelerated so much, the other one could probably hear it too; she took a deep breath to try to calm her excitement down.

”I think I did,” Luka smiled at the irony of the moment. “...What about you?” Meiko shook her head in denial. “Have you never—”

”I don’t know…” Meiko interrupted with a mumble. “Love is still something unknown to me,” she raised her head off of Luka’s shoulder. “...And for Kaito too, I guess,” she chuckled at her own statements.

Luka smiled kindly at her. “Why have you asked me that?” Meiko flinched. “...You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to,” she added with worry. “I’m not pressuring you…  _ am I _ ?”

Meiko slowly shook her head; she turned on her wooden bench to lock her eyes with Luka. Her throat felt dry all of the sudden, and hesitation seemed to consume her again, but she decided to trust her like Luka’s previous words implied.

She took a deep, calming, breath.

”...I want to know,” her face was already extremely red. ”...Are you and Gakupo,” she bit down on her lower lip. “...In a relationship?” Luka widened her eyes.

There was a long, expectant silence between the two of them. 

Meiko started to regret her own question and turned her blushing face down, suddenly, the ground seemed to be the most interesting thing for her. Luka looked like she freezed on the spot: her mouth was trying to speak but no sound came out of it. Meiko tried to look at her to apologise, but before she could utter something: she was interrupted.

Luka laughed loudly.

”Ugh!” Meiko groaned. “What is your problem?!” Even though she tried to sound angry and insulted, her face was way too red for that. “I know it’s a dumb question and that I jumped into a conclusion on my own but—” Meiko fidgeted. “At least I’m trying!” Meiko yelled at her.

And that was enough to make them realize where they currently were at the moment: the entirety of the bar went silent.

Meiko squealed at the unwanted attention; she quickly tried to hide her face with her own arms, as her companion bowed her head slightly from her seat, in a way to try to apologise for the occurrence.

Luka watched carefully as people soon started to go back to their own activities and sighed in relief before she turned back at Meiko.

”Sorry for laughing,” Luka scratched her cheek and chuckled awkwardly. “It’s just that…” Meiko uncovered her face and turned at her with an intrigued expression.

There was something for her to think to herself about what she was about to say; she could tell Meiko the truth, but that might upset her for not telling about it earlier, she could tell a lie, but that would probably later on weight her conscience heavily.

Her clear hesitation didn’t go unnoticed by Meiko, who grasped her hand, carefully, in a reassuring manner: a silent way to say that she could trust her too.

Luka relaxed her entire body and facial expression as she made on her decision. “Was it  _ that _ obvious?” She smiled softly and rose a brow.

Meiko stared at her with huge eyes. “So you two  _ are _ —”

”Were,” Luka closed her eyes. “We used to date, but not anymore,” she opened them to look at her companion on her side.

Astonishment was clear on her expression; as Meiko absorbed the information, she leaned a bit away from the counter with her arms, almost falling in the process, comically.

”Wow,” Meiko gasped softly in amazement. “By your interactions with him, I was already starting to consider you two were lovers... or just constantly teasing each other,” Luka chuckled at that. “You two must have a hell of a friendship, then,” Meiko laughed amusingly to herself.

“I know him since we were brats, so even after we broke up, we decided it was better not to cut off such a  _ strong bond _ ,” Luka chuckled with herself.

It wasn’t exactly a lie, but it also wasn’t the truth. There wasn’t exactly the feeling of a romantic love in their relationship, as wrong as it sounded, they felt more like friends with benefits than lovers.

“No!” Luka pulled on her hair at the sudden realization, alarming her companion. “I’m such an awful person,” she whined loudly.

“What were you thinking about?” Meiko asked with a worried grimace.

“... _ My terrible life choices _ ?” Luka tried.

“Have you realized that maybe you just got rid of the  _ perfect _ man for you?” Meiko teased her, bitterly.

“Nah,” Luka snorted. “He’s not exactly my type, sometimes he can be way  _ too _ cocky for my own tastes,” she shrugged playfully. “That’s why we’re always teasing each other.”

“You hypocrite!” Meiko snapped playfully. “I’ve already seen you act arrogantly like that countless times… and in only two weeks!” Luka chuckled at her words. “I bet your future partner will be having a hard time, then,” Meiko started to laugh to herself.

”Yeah…” Luka stared at Meiko’s bright and happy smile with incandescent love. “Well,” she pressed her hands against the counter to get up. “What about I pay for us as a courtesy?”

  
  
  


Gakupo and Kaito were shopping for quite a while. They went in and out of diverse clothing stores. Kaito would constantly ask him if he was sure he didn’t want to buy anything for himself, only to be answered with a laughter and a head shake.

”What do you think about this one?” Kaito picked up a navy blue leather jacket out of a cloth hanging stand.

Gakupo took a close look at it. ”I like the design, it’s delicate,” he slid his fingers along the fabric. “The color is also really pretty,” Kaito took that as a yes. “I think it suits you,” he finished.

A pink tint quickly appeared on Kaito's cheeks; he muttered a small thanks, slowly averting his gaze to the side to keep going on with their shopping.

They kept choosing clothes and accessories a little more. When Kaito looked at the, almost full, store’s clothing bag he carried, he decided it was good enough to go to try them on. He motioned for Gakupo to wait in front of the fitting room on one of the comfy white benches.

”I’ll be right back,” Kaito took some of the clothes inside the small space. “I’ll try not to make you wait too long,” he smiled and closed the red curtain of the fitting room.

Gakupo nodded and decided to mess with his cell phone.

Even though Kaito said he would try not to take too long, it was almost impossible; after all, he had taken a lot of clothes to try on. Gakupo, on the other side, couldn’t feel less bothered by it; he kept satted there like a dog patiently waiting for its owner.

After a while, he noticed a small gap between the curtain; curiosity struck him, and it was the bad type, the type that seemed to fit more with what Luka would purpose than anyone else.

He pondered a little to see if he should really do what he was thinking; if he peeked through the small gap and Kaito saw him, he could just say that he was worried because of the long period of time he was taking trying on clothes.

But that wouldn’t do it; if he did that, he could end up pressioning the other one to finish it more sooner than planned. Or it could be even worse: Kaito could probably think that he didn’t trust him enough.

After he created countless possible outcomes inside his head, he decided to go for a more safe alternative.

Gakupo turned on the back camera of his cell phone. If he leaned a little to the side, he could get a good angle inside the fitting room; this was a good, but bad, idea.

His eyes slowly trailed down as he looked at was displayed on his screen; it was currently shutting off. Thankfully, but not for him, the phone battery had died.

He cursed himself mentally for having used it for such a long period of time, only to waste such an opportunity; couldn’t he at least had recharged it for a while before he left the earlier meeting?

Gakupo just now realised that what he was trying to do was extremely wrong.

He felt ashamed for trying to peek at the other one like that; he started to feel like some sort of of pervert. No, even worse: he felt like Luka.

The small sound of the curtain of the fitting room being dragged open took him off of his shameful trail of thoughts.

”Ok! I’ve already decided which ones I want,” Kaito uttered cheerfully.

Gakupo smiled at him in relief and got up from his seat. As he looked at his hands: he couldn’t help but notice that, there were a lot less clothes than he had picked earlier; confusion struck him.

”Didn’t liked them?” Gakupo asked. Kaito tilted his head at his question. “I mean the clothes,” he pointed out. “You had chosen a lot more of them earlier.”

Kaito blinked a few times before furrowing his eyebrows slightly. “I didn’t pick too many since I don’t wanna force you into paying too much,” he mumbled with a pout.

Gakupo laughed. “You don’t need to worry about that, it’s a gift from me to you, after all,” he dismissed with his hand. “Besides, I’m well paid, and you know that,” Kaito blushed at that, he’s right.

”I’m sorry…” Kaito slowly scratched his cheek with his free hand.

”What are you apologising for?” Gakupo rose a brow.

”I mean…” Kaito pondered. “I’m a bit awkward,” Gakupo opened his mouth to speak. “This is a complete new experience for me,” he continued before the other one could say something. “I’m not used to going out with friends,” Kaito gave a somewhat sad smile.

”...Why is that?” Gakupo asked with worry.

Kaito slowly shook his head. ”I don’t know,” he mumbled as he frowned. “It was like that since me and Meiko were kids,” Kaito relaxed his expression at the memories. “I think that… people can get easily tired of you if you take everything to heart,” he smiled melancholically.

Gakupo was startled for a moment or so, as much as he wanted to disagree with his words: he wasn’t exactly wrong.

“...Or maybe I’m just  _ that _ annoying to other people,” Kaito laughed painfully to himself. ”Must be it, I guess,” he shrugged.

It’s wasn’t true, he did not thought of Kaito as annoying; he might be a shy person, but he always tried his best to overcome his insecurities. Even though he was a bit awkward, it wasn’t necessarily a big problem.

“I don’t think of you as annoying,” Kaito blinked at his words. “It’s natural for some people to be more sensitive than others,” Gakupo smiled softly. “And… there’ll always have individuals that don’t know how to properly react towards them.”

Luka was that type of individual. Since kindergarten until high school, there were numerous times she tried to crack the shell of introverts, as wrong as it was; but she would always end giving up after two failed attempts and keep going with her life like anything had happened.

“...I guess it all depends in what environment that you’re at,” he finished with a shrug.

”Won’t you… get tired of me?” Kaito asked in a pleading tone.

”No,” Gakupo shook his head. “Neither I, nor Luka, nor any other resident of the Vocaloid Mansion will get tired of you,” Kaito turned his head down. “It may sounds a bit corny what I’m going to say,” he approached him. “But you and your sister can consider yourselves as part of the family.”

Gakupo patted his head in the same reassuring way he saw Meiko doing to him the first time they’ve seen each other.

They stood there in silence for a while. Gakupo couldn’t see his face clearly, but one thing was for sure: Kaito was probably blushing, and a lot, at the moment, if he could tell it only by the slight red hue that managed to reach to the tips of his ears.

Kaito shook his head a little and looked up at him. Even though he had a small and sheepish smile on: he looked like he was about to cry. Tears had started to build up in his big blue eyes, threatening to fall at any moment; it was undeniably adorable.

Gakupo smiled softly at that.

Realization suddenly struck him like a lighting bolt: they were still at the store. 

He looked around in desperation.

They were hopefully alone there; he couldn’t quite tell it exactly: a few of the dressing room’s curtains were closed and, he did not dare to check if they were really occupied. Hopefully, only one or two people had heard their conversation.

Gakupo sighed in relief. ”It will break my heart if you cry,” he dried some of Kaito’s tears with his thumb. “And we’re still in public,” Gakupo laughed slightly.

Kaito chuckled. ”I’m sorry,” he gave Gakupo his clothes to try to dry the tears that formed in his eyes with his hands. “But they’re happiness tears,” Kaito laughed happily with a bright smile.

Gakupo felt his heart warm up to the point of simply melt in response.


	4. Where?

With careful steps, Luka ascended the staircase of her house; she stopped in front of the door of the only bedroom it had and, opened it slowly and stealthily, in a way to try not to produce the inevitable annoying creaking sound it made.

Gakupo slept soundly on the double bed; his lips were slightly opened and, almost, inaudible snores were coming out of them now and then.

Luka grinned mischievously to herself as she moved to get on his side of the bed; this should be fun, she just came out from the kitchen to catch the items necessary for her shenanigans: two pans.

With utmost care she raised her arms up high.

”Wake up sleepy head~!” Luka uttered cheerfully and quickly smashed the two items together, creating a constant and annoying noise.

Gakupo shot up from the bed with a loud growl.

“What the  _ fuck _ is your problem?!” He yelled at her and snatched the objects from her hands, throwing them at the other side of the room in the process.

The noise got even worse as the pans ended up colliding strongly with the wall. Gakupo held his head for the inevitable headache it caused him first thing in the day.

Luka laughed loudly at the outcome. ”Don’t act like that,” she said with a smug. Gakupo growled at her. “Don’t tell me you forgot what day it is, _ hmmm _ ~?” Luka purred at him.

”I know,” he frowned and leaned down on the bed again.

”Then why are you sleeping?!” Luka screamed exaggeratedly. “Our sweethearts’ debut is today!” Luka brought her hands up to her hips. “And don’t you _dare_ say to me that the concert is only at five o'clock,” she narrowed her eyes at him, defiantly. “It’s already noon!”

”Fine,” Gakupo scoffed to himself. “Then I won’t,” he covered himself up with his blanket.

Luka puffed her cheeks childishly at his stubborn behavior and snatched the blanket off of him, throwing it on the ground in the process. Gakupo let out a disapproving growl; sensing her effective attempt to annoyance, she smugged triumphantly.

Quick steps were taken as she made her way towards the window at the side of the bed.

“The sooner we get to the mansion, the sooner we got to see them,” she opened the curtain, allowing the sunlight to enter the previously dark room.

Gakupo growled loudly again at the sudden light intrusion and covered his eyes with his forearm.

”Look outside!” Luka gestured with her hands as she looked forward towards it. “It’s such a lovely day!”

“I don’t see what is so special about it,” Gakupo supported himself on the bed by his elbows. “It looks like a normal day to me,” he yawned disinterested.

“The weather is nice, birds are chirping melodically, kids are playing happily on the streets,” she made a brief and dramatic pause. “Disgusting,” Luka hissed and closed the curtain again. “Now,  _ get up _ !”

  
  
  


The concert they were all getting ready for in this afternoon was arranged previously in their last meeting two months ago. It had settled an official date for both Kaito and Meiko’s debut as the Vocaloid Talent Agency’s new singers.

For the past few weeks, everyone was considerably busy: they had to do countless rehearsals for both singing and dancing; but even with the tight schedule, they would still found ways to manage their free time, only to keep hanging out together.

Gakupo and Luka, as well as the other six residents of the Vocaloid Mansion, were all currently cramped in a car, as they made their way to the stage the performance of today was going to occur.

Even though most of them were both excited and nervous to the event, one seemed to be extremely out of place during the entirety of the trip: Luka looked she was ready to snap at any moment.

And everyone was mentally prepared for that.

Luka sighed suddenly to start it all.

”I know it’s the  _ company’s _ car and all that but,” she turned her head to stare at Gakupo at her side on the driver’s seat. “Isn’t a bit cramped?” Luka hissed between gritted teeth.

”Shut up, it was the best they could do for us at the last minute,” Gakupo kept his head attentive to the road ahead of him. “Besides, it has four back seats. I think it’s already a good start,” he shrugged indifferently.

”F—  _ Four _ seats?! We’re in  _ eight _ ,” Luka screamed, outraged. “I mean— Haven’t you even seen  _ that _ ?!” Luka turned her whole body to gesture exaggeratedly at the back seats of the car with her hands. “Miku doesn’t even have a seat to start with!”

Kaito and Meiko were seated side by side, as well as both of the Kagamine twins. Hatsune Miku was sitting on Rin’s lap; an awkward laugh escaped her lips as she nervously scratched her cheek.

”Actually, I don’t really mind that…” Rin uttered. “I think it’s better for her going like this than in the trunk,” she narrowed her eyes at the thought. “... _ As you suggested earlier _ .”

Luka snorted sarcastically. “Yeah? But what about Gumi?!” She pointed out exaggeratedly.

Everyone turned their eyes quietly at the direction of the latter; Megpoid was sprawled on the floor of the car, too busy playing on her PS Vita to even notice she was being the current topic of the conversation.

Gakupo growled under his breath. ”Are you done?” He quickly glanced at Luka, who returned to her original, compostured position. “You don’t need to make a fuss about it.”

Luka puffed her cheeks, childishly. ”I was just spitting the facts,” she mumbled with a pout.

”Ah—! Look at that!” Miku shouted suddenly, happily. “We’ve arrived!” A bright smile adorned her face, together with her sparkling eyes.

They looked out from Miku’s side of the window to watch the scenery; the stadium were the concert of today was going to be hosted was right in front of their eyes.

Even though it seemed to be entirely closed from the exterior world, it only managed to bring a mysterious charm to it. Its beautiful tall structure was entirely covered in glass, which reflected the sunlight that hitted on it, almost blinding with its brightness who dared to look attentively at it.

An inevitable soft gasp escaped the siblings’ lips, that made the people that accompanied them smile nostalgically at it.

All of them knew exactly what feelings and emotions they were going through at this moment. Kaito and Meiko were going to make their debut there; today was going to be the most important day of their careers: the one who would officially engrave their names in the music industry.

And that was going to be place it would occur.

As they moved through the parking lot, the siblings couldn’t get their eyes off the building: both of them admired every single angle of it during the turn. As soon as Gakupo parked the car, the admiration silence was quickly cut off.

”Yes~! I want to get out first!” Miku jumped off from Rin’s lap.

”Argh—!” Gumi got the back of her legs stepped on. “Watch out you  _ dumbass _ ,” she shouted at the diva as a small fight inside the cramped space was held.

  
  
  


The sound of their steps could be heard inside the big stadium as they walked their way towards their dressing rooms to get ready. Kaito and Meiko couldn’t help but look around with curiosity at the staff members that organized the final details of the, soon to happen, concert.

Some walked around with heavy boxes full of merchandise, while others took care of the equipment they were going to use that day, among other things. It was certainly a rush to get everything done as soon as possible.

As Meiko turned her head all around the place, she suddenly bumped into someone.

”Ah— I’m sorry. I wasn’t exactly paying attention to—” Meiko stopped her panic attack to look up at the person in front of her. “...You here?” Meiko asked astonishingly.

After a while, Kaito noticed his sister was not following the overall group and turned to the direction they came from, only to find her talking with a staff member; he got worried almost immediately of what could’ve possibly happened and decided to approach her side.

He looked closely at who she was talking to. ”Neru?!” Kaito exclaimed in the same surprised tone his sister uttered previously.

”Yo,” the latter looked up from a heavy box she was carrying and smiled at him.

”Do you… work here?” Kaito brought his index finger up his chin as he looked at the item on her hands with curiosity.

”No greetings?” Neru rose a brow. “Rude, nice to see you too,” she scoffed. “And yes, I do work here, but as a makeup artist,” Neru remarked. “Although... today they wanted me to help with the arrangements of the concert,” she sighed with frustration.

”I couldn’t imagine we would meet you again in a place like this,” Meiko crossed her arms on top of her chest. “...Neither that you worked for this company,” she said amusingly.

Neru narrowed her eyes at her.

”Haven’t you checked my social media? I  _ always _ comment about it,” Meiko flinched at her words. “I can understand why Kaito wouldn’t see it since he doesn’t use them very much…” Neru glanced lazily at him. “But  _ you _ ?”

”About that…” Meiko scratched her cheek, guiltily. “... _ No _ ,” Neru snorted.

Sensing that the siblings have been left behind, the rest of the singers turned to their little scene; curiosity immediately struck them when they saw the two of them chattering friendly with a staff member.

”Do you…” Miku approached the trio with caution. “Know each other already?” She asked what everyone that watched them for afar wanted to.

”She’s an old friend of ours,” Kaito smiled. “She has been around us since childhood, almost part of the family if I dare to say,” he laughed sheepishly.

Neru smiled, she bowed at her instead of waving, in a way to avoid the possibility of dropping the box full of merchandise she carried around.

”Ooh,” Hatsune gasped softly in amazement. “So you two know Neru already?!” Miku clapped her hands together, excitedly. “It’s always good to have strong bonds with people in your workplace,” she nodded proudly at her own statements.

”Do  _ you _ know her?” Meiko rose a brow.

”Why—? Of course I do! I remember the names of every staff member I enter in contact with,” Miku patted on her chest, proudly. “Besides! Neru is the one that always do my makeup and combs my hair,” she held her twintails with both of her hands.

They could see how Kagamine Len, with a troubled expression on his face, approached behind the diva that spoke enthusiastically with them; he coughed nervously and patted on her shoulder to catch her attention.

”...We have to go,” Len said for Miku to grimace at him.

“What?! But I’ve just started speaking,” she sulked.

“We have a strict schedule to follow today,” Len scolded Miku for her to pout. “You two can keep on with the chattering if you want to,” he looked at the trio. “Just try not to take too long,” he excused himself.

As they walked away to follow up with the rest of their group, Miku turned around and waved frantically at them to dismiss herself. Neru sighed with tiredness when they finally got off of her eyesight.

”I like Miku, she’s a chill boss,” Kaito and Meiko looked at her. “The blonde brat is annoying, though,” Neru growled between gritted teeth. “He tries to act all serious even though he’s only fourteen,” she scoffed. “Don’t tell him I told you two that,” Neru threatened them.

”Won’t be telling,” Kaito chuckled with a dismissal of his hand. “I wouldn’t want you to lose your job because of something so little like that,” he paused. “... _ Again _ ,” Neru stuck her tongue out at him.

”By the way,” Meiko gathered their attention. “What are you carrying around?” Akita opened her mouth to speak. “And don’t tell it it’s a box, I  _ know _ it and I  _ saw _ it,” Meiko narrowed her eyes at her.

Neru was amused by her reaction. Meiko seemed to be able to predict how she would respond after all these years together; she probably couldn’t mess with her like when they were younger anymore.

”They’re glow sticks,” she took a teal-colored one out of the box. “This one is Miku’s, every singer has their own based off their representative color,” Neru put it back on its original place. “That also means you two will get your own ones,” she winked at them.

The siblings blinked several times at her; they leaned over to looked inside the heavy box. It was true: there were some blue and red ones with the rest of the bunch.

”Although…” Neru continued. “I don’t think the fans who attend the concert today will know what your colors are meant to represent,” she clicked her tongue. “Well, at least for now,” Meiko chuckled at her words.

”What do you mean?” Kaito rose a brow in confusion, he didn’t get what she tried to imply to them.

“You know…” Neru waggled her head around. “Maybe it’s the whole  _ surprise debut _ thingy,” she sneered. “Don’t get your hopes too high if there’s the possibility that no one applauds when you two go onstage,” a sideways grin formed on her lips.

“I bet they’ll probably be way too shocked to even process what is going on,” Meiko raised her index finger.

Kaito stood silently there as he watched the two of them laughing, an uneasy expression started to form on his face; the conversation left him a little uncomfortable with himself.

“But hey,” Neru smiled softly at them. “It seems like life took a really lucky turn for both of you,” Meiko sighed peacefully at her words.

”Sometimes I stop to think about that too,” she closed her eyes momentaneously. “It’s incredible to think that we’re only a few hours away from realizing our childhood dreams…”

Almost everyone in their childhood days would want to be as famous and adored as their favorite singers; for many, being able to captivate people across the world with your voice and talent was simply an amazing concept.

And to think that they’ve managed to follow and not give up with that dream to this day...

“It’s not always I see my friends turning into successful singers,” Neru snorted to herself.

”We still aren’t…” Meiko got shaken off her train of thoughts and laughed awkwardly.

”I’m calling that,” Neru started walking away. “Ever since we were kids you two know that everything I say happens in one way or another,” Meiko chuckled softly at that.

It was true, their friend would constantly made her so called prophecies when they were younger and, no matter how good or bad they were: they always happened.

“If you two get rich, then call me!” Neru yelled in the distance.

Meiko waved back at her at her as they watched her figure disappear in the distance, a content sigh escaped her lips at the feeling of satisfaction the talk brought her. Finally noticing her younger brother was strangely quiet and uneasy around them, she decided to take a look at him.

Kaito had clear concern on his face; he looked so deep in his thoughts, that he might’ve not even realized what they were chattering about all this time. Meiko trailed her eyes to see how he slowly rubbed his arm in nervousness.

”What’s wrong?” Meiko hugged him by the shoulders.

Kaito frowned slightly and shook his head.

”Nothing,” he got away from her embrace. “It’s just that…” Kaito sighed tiredly. “Today’s a really,  _ really _ , important day for both of us,” he looked at his sister. “...And I’m afraid to screw things over,” he turned his head towards the ground.

Seeing her dear brother so down like this messed with something on her heart; Meiko felt how her expression saddened too at his current mood influence.

”It’s alright,” she whispered softly and grasped his hand. Kaito flinched at the contact. “Even if this probably isn’t something good, I’m also... afraid of the failure,” he looked up at her.

Kaito trusted her, he knew for a fact she had her own moments of weakness, yet…

Meiko had never shown them to him; she would keep it all to herself until she could solve her problems on her own, alone. That’s why he would always keep looking for one day being someone as strong as her.

“But even so…” Meiko tightened her hold on him. “Worrying too much will only bring self-sabotage for both of us,” she softened her tone. “What I’m going to say may… not be of much help for you at this moment.”

Meiko chuckled nervously to herself, in a way to try to lighten up the mood; even her herself wasn’t so sure about what she was about to say to Kaito as some sort of comfort, it bothered her that she didn’t know what else to do besides try to reassure him.

“Take your sister’s advice and try to relax,  _ ok _ ?” Meiko tilted her head and smiled kindly at him.

Kaito slowly nodded to her words; he admired his older sister’s patience towards him, her gentle manners of talking and dealing with him have never failed to lift his mood or reassure him in any situation.

Even if it was only for a while.

  
  
  


”Meg, I want to play it too~” Luka sulked and threw herself on Gumi’s back.

Everyone had finished their duties, the final arrangements of the concert were already done. The singers who were going to participate the event were all in their assigned costumes, waiting patiently inside an entirely white backstage room for their calls to go live.

Megpoid Gumi growled under her breath, turning her head towards Luka at the black leather couch with extreme annoyance plastered on her face.

”Remind me how old are you again?” Gumi narrowed her eyes at Luka.

”Old enough, I guess,” Luka shrugged.

”Then  _ act _ like your age.”

”Oh,  _ c’mooon _ …” Luka whined. “You’ll be soon going onstage to sing with Miku the opening song,” she pulled on Gumi’s orange jacket. “Let me play with it to kill my boredom while you’re there,” a pout adorned her lips.

Gakupo sighed; for the entirety of the time they were inside the room, these two were acting like children fighting for some new toy in the toy box.

”Can you two stop doing that?” Gakupo gritted his teeth. “Luka is  _ surprisingly _ right,” the latter stuck her tongue out at Gumi.

”Wait!” Luka shot her head up. “What is  _ that _ supposed to mean?!” The realization of what he might’ve implied about her brought annoyance for the latter.

“In only thirty minutes you’ve to be ready,” Gakupo decided to ignore the whining adult woman in front of him. “You should take the opportunity of this rest of time you still have to, at least, review some of your choreographies,” he frowned at Gumi. “...Instead of wasting it on games,” Gakupo scolded her.

Megpoid tried to protest, but the choice of words necessary for her to convince him otherwise didn’t come. Gumi growled under her breath, she was definitely cornered by the two adults.

”Fine, _ dad _ ,” she hissed at him to turn towards Luka, currently leaning on her back. “But  _ only _ while I’m onstage,” she watched as the woman approached her hand towards the videogame. “And if you mess up with my scores,” her cold tone made Luka stop. “I’m not letting you play with my PS Vita anymore.”

Luka snatched the console off of her hands, lacking any delicacy, and happily got off of her back; she celebrated her successful attempt to annoyance cheerfully as Gumi already started to regret giving her the videogame.

Her silly little victory dance was cut off suddenly by the three younger singers of the group, that entered the room in a rush, bringing all the loud exterior noise from the outside with them in the process.

”Guys!” Miku panted from her run. “It’s an emergency—”

The diva cut herself abruptly, she slowly narrowed her eyes to look attentively at the item Luka was currently holding with her hands.

“W—  _ Whaaaaat _ ?!” Miku exclaimed dramatically and pointed at Gumi. “I can’t believe you’ve let  _ her _ play it but not me! Even after all those times I cleaned your room,” she whined childishly for her lost.

Kagamine Rin sighed and smacked Miku at the back of her head for her to snap out of it.

”It’s not a good moment for you two to argue about that…” Len closed his eyes to took hold of the bridge of his nose.

Noticing the subject of the conversation quickly turned to a complete different path, he shot his eyes open and cleared his throat, a way to try to start again what was previously interrupted.

“As Miku said: we’re in a emergency,” Len looked at the rest of the singers with a serious expression. “We need your help,” he narrowed his eyes at them.

The tension inside the room increased considerably at his words.

”What… is it?” Luka gulped and sat down on one of the black leather couches. “And why do I have a bad feeling abou—”

”We weren’t able to find Kaito and Meiko anywhere,” Rin said, straight forward.

”Wait—  _ What _ ?!” Luka shouted loudly and got up from her seat, dropping the console that was previously on her hands in the process.

Megpoid quickly tried to get it before it smashed on the ground, to no avail. ”That’s terrible! What are we going to do now?” Gumi said with concern.

It was uncertain if her worries at the moment were directed at her videogame or, for the current situation they’ve found themselves in; it was more likely the second option.

Kagamine Len cleared his throat again to gather their attention.

”That’s why we need  _ your _ help,” he pointed specifically at Gakupo and Luka, who looked at him with confusion written all over their faces. “Since you two aren’t participating in this concert, we’re asking you to find them as soon as possible,” Len nodded at his twin.

Rin took a step forward. ”We aren’t able to go out to search for them anymore since we’ll be going onstage soon,” she furrowed her eyebrows, sadly. ”Everything cannot be canceled at the last minute,” Miku nodded at her words.

“And you two know them better than us,” Hatsune continued. “You’ll sure figure out a way to convince them to participate the concert and...” Miku smiled, melancholically. “...Calm down the pressure they might been passing through right now.”

They watched the duo expectantly as Gakupo and Luka looked at each other with troubled expressions on their faces.

This was too much; Kaito and Meiko both looked really well when they arrived at the stadium, they even had encountered a familiar face to them and were chatting happily but, then: they disappear so suddenly.

It was only twenty five minutes before the concert started, every second was precious in this situation; they had to find them, and quickly.

They nodded at each other.

”We’ll go look out for them,” Gakupo said reassuringly.

”We’re not giving up until we find them,” Luka smiled with confidence.


	5. First Time Insecurities

”AaArgh!” Luka whined loudly. “I’m fucking giving up! How big  _ is _ this place?!” She looked across the white hallway she was currently in.

After only ten minutes searching for Meiko: Luka was already extremely frustrated with herself. Actually, she was frustrated with everything.

The corridors were way too long for her own tastes, tedious to walk through and, in every single one of them there were a dozen doors or so. Every time she got inside one room: there were even more doors inside of it!

There was also the possibility that she might’ve walked past Meiko previously and didn’t even noticed it, a possibility that had managed to make her blood boil in rage; this place was like a maze.

”This  _ goddamn _ stadium!” Luka hissed angrily and kicked a nearby trash can. “If it only wasn’t so ridiculously large,” she looked down at all the trash she scattered on the floor.

Luka sighed as tiredness got the best of her.

”I should calm myself down,” she kneeled on the ground to start collecting her mess. “I’m starting to rage over an inanimate object,” an awkward chuckle escaped her lips. “Besides…” Luka gazed sadly at the crumpled paper on her hands.

This was supposed to be Kaito and Meiko’s special day; yes, their reaction was unexpected to all, but she could not put the blame on them, they were obviously going to be anxious about such pressure.

“I shouldn’t give up on her...” Luka clenched the paper ball tightly with her fist, putting it back on its due place. “...Meiko,” she muttered softly to herself and got up.

Luka took a slow and deep breath.

Her eyes closed momentaneously, amplifying the feeling of the cold air produced by the air conditioner filling up her lungs; after exhaling softly, an inexplicable peace ran throughout her whole body as she slowly recomposed herself.

The nerves she was passing through almost instantaneously calmed down.

**_“Where are you?!”_ **

Another kick was, yet again, delivered to the trash can in frustration, this time: with much more strength than previously. All her efforts to recollect her mess were immediately put into waste. A loud noise was produced when it collided with the wall and it echoed throughout the entire empty hallway.

Luka jumped in shock at the unexpected outcome from her stupid and reckless actions; she stared everywhere with a ridiculously scared expression on her face.

”Geez,” a close-by door opened slightly. “Couldn’t you be  _ more _ loud?” Shion Meiko peeked out of the room in annoyance.

They both stared silently at each other for a brief and awkward moment; the scattered trash on the ground was going unnoticed by the two of them as their tournament of stares was held.

Eyes widened in sudden realization and Meiko rushed to close the door.

”Wai—  _ Wait _ !” Luka ran towards her before she could lock herself in, “Why have you—  _ YeRK _ !” A loud, pained yelp escaped her lips when the cold door pressed against her fingers.

“Oh— My—!” Meiko panicked and opened the door. “I’m sorry,” she grasped her injured hand. “I really didn’t mean to—!”

Meiko felt herself being pulled inside the room roughly by her right shoulder. Fear struck her when Luka locked the door and leaned her back on it, turning around to look at her with a never seen before serious expression on her face.

Was she angry at her...?

”Luka,” Meiko chewed on her lower lip, guiltily. ”Look, I’m really so—” Her eyes trailed down as she noticed that the other one trembled slightly. “...I think it hurted a bit too much for you,” she arched a brow.

”N—  _ No _ ,” Luka trembled her lips in a thin line. “And you don’t need to worry about that,” she dismissed with her good hand. “You should worry about  _ yourself _ ,” Luka crossed her arms on top of her chest.

Meiko cringed looking at how Luka was clearly trying her best to appear to be serious and threatheting in front of her, but she could still notice her trembling and the nervous chewing on her lower lip; couldn’t she just admit that she was in pain and cut off the tough act?

Meiko shot a glance at her showing that she was not convinced.

”Of course it hurts! It hurts like hell!” Luka hissed as she unfolded her arms. “But—! That’s not my prior concern at this moment,” she pointed at her. “You!” Meiko flinched at the sudden shout. “Why you ran away?!”

The previously mocking expression Meiko had on her face, saddened almost instantaneously at the accusatory finger. Luka felt bad about that immediately, it looked like she just kicked a puppy!

”Sorry about that…” Luka slowly apologised. “I didn’t meant to... sound so insensitive,” she rubbed the nape of her neck. “...We were just all worried about you,” Luka smiled sheepishly.

”I—” Meiko tried to utter something.

”I know what you’re going to say and—” Luka cut her off. “You don’t need to apologise,” she chuckled. “I know really well the pressure you’re going through right now,” Luka softened her gaze. “After all,” she shrugged. “I was there one day too, you know?”

”Do you… happened to go through the same situation I’ve got myself in?” Meiko smiled thinly with furrowed eyebrows.

”Well…  _ yes _ ,” Luka grimaced. “But we don’t talk about that,” she hissed.

”Now you’ve gotten my interest,” Meiko laughed slightly. ”I guess there’s really no way for you to tell me this story,” she folded her arms, amused.

”About that…” Luka scratched her cheek as she thought of an excuse. “Yeah, you’re pretty much right,” she narrowed her eyes at the embarrassing memories that popped up inside of her mind.

The two of them snorted, almost simultaneously. Luka took profit that the mood had lightened considerably and decided to look around at their current environment.

There wasn’t much besides some chairs placed in the back of the room. As she looked at their side, Luka inevitably noticed how there was an overly large mirror that covered the entirety of one of the walls, with a few horizontal metal bars attached to it.

It was a practice room.

”Just now,” she started for Meiko to look at her. “Were you rehearsing your choreographies?” Luka turned her head to lock eyes with hers.

Meiko shuddered slightly and averted her gaze to the side, unfolding her arms. ”Yeah, I,” she sighed frustrantly. “I was...” Meiko turned her head to look at her reflection in the wall mirror.

She looked done.

There was clear concern and exhaustion on her facial expression; the beautiful job her hair stylists had done was put into waste, there were even some rebel strands that wouldn’t keep down no matter how much she tried to fix them with her own hands.

And it was all thanks to the countless times she messed with her hair in frustration at the thought of: “Not being good enough.”

“No,” Meiko corrected herself. “I  _ am _ really nervous about not being able to do it well onstage,” Luka turned her head to meet her gaze in the mirror. “Even though I told Kaito not to worry too much…” Meiko bit down on her lower lip. “...I feel like a hypocrite,” she smiled painfully.

Luka turned her head again to look at the Meiko in front of her; it wasn’t the strong and enthusiastic woman she had seen until now, it seemed more like staring at a sensitive, scared little girl. Somehow it felt like she was looking at the real Meiko.

She couldn’t exactly remember its name, but the words that one bartender had uttered to her months ago, suddenly made sense for her.

”...Am I a bad sister?” Meiko slowly muttered to herself.

**_”No!”_ **

The loud shout Luka produced almost echoed throughout the practice room, making Meiko look at her instantaneously with a surprised and astonished expression on her face; that was an unexpected reaction not only for her, but for both of them.

Luka grasped her hands. ”I think you’re a wonderful woman! An admirable person! Someone who people can look forward to,” she blushed slightly at her words, at the same time as Meiko did so.

Her mind screamed inwardly at her own actions, asking herself what she was even saying; she wasn’t the type of person that complimented others, only teased them, that was something that even herself acknowledged so.

Maybe she wasn’t thinking properly anymore about what was coming out of her mouth. It seemed almost automatic, like she wanted to say those things to Meiko beforehand.

“You’ve been keeping all of this to yourself for a period of time that only you could know,” Luka uttered enthusiastically. “And even when  _ you _ were unsure yourself about—”

The motivational speech was cut off for a short period of time, she tried to think about a proper word with frustration; that wasn’t a very good time for her to run short on expressions.

“...Stuff?” Luka added confusedly with a grimace. “You tried your best to reassure your little brother as much as you could!” Luka stated, proudly.

Meiko stared at her with huge eyes, she tried for a long while to absorb all the sentimentalist words Luka had uttered. Taking profit from the opportunity her shocking words proportioned: Luka took a deep breath to recompose herself, she wasn’t done.

”And…” Luka softened her gaze to look back at her. “If one day you need someone to rely on,” she shook her still, gripped hands. “I’m here for you,” Luka smiled sweetly.

Meiko could feel how the heat slowly gathered on her face. No one had ever told her something like that; she usually was the shoulder people would lean on to seek for support, never the other way around.

For a long while she tried to utter something in response to Luka, but for her embarrassment: she could only constantly open and close her mouth repeatedly, much like a goldfish would.

”I…” Meiko finally caught on her words. “Thank you!” A bright and radiant smile was directed towards Luka. “You don’t know how much I apprecia—”

A small, sudden, static noise, produced by the speaker of the room when turning on, grasped their attention. Both of them stopped on their tracks, cutting off their conversation to listen carefully to what was being announced.

”The concert!” Meiko panicked in sudden realization. “I can’t believe I’ve lost track of time!” Hurried steps were taken for her to get out of the room.

As Meiko almost touched the doorknob, she saw a hand with pink polished nails pressing the door shut, cornering her in the process; what was with such proximity?

Her heartbeat was accelerating so much, she could feel it was going to leap out of her chest at any moment; she decided to slowly turn around to look at Luka.

”Luka,” Meiko blushed. “I have to go,” she slowly uttered. ”The concert is about to start in a few minutes,” her eyes quickly glanced back at the doorknob.

Luka chuckled and shook her head, as if she was disciplining a child.

”Look at your hair,” she took one of the brown strands between her fingers. Meiko carefully watched her actions. “Are you really going to go out there like that?” Luka said amusingly with a raised eyebrow.

Flirty and cool was all that Luka appeared to be on the outside at this moment. Inside of herself: she felt like constantly screaming at her own imprudent actions; she had to admit that she liked her sudden changes in personality, though.

”Of course I’m going to talk with my hair stylist first,” Meiko mumbled with a pout, breaking free from the hold of the other one on her hair strands.

”We still have some time before you go there,” Luka yet again grasped her hands in a gentle touch.

”What are you—?” Meiko followed her steps with curiosity.

“What about before you waste another well done job,” Luka guided her further back inside the practice room. “I help you out with your current insecurities?” A kind smile adorned her face.

Meiko stared back at her for a while; unknown feelings seemed to have brought tiny, shiny, little sparkles to her eyes as she took her offer with a shy nod.

Their hands were raised slightly to be joined together. Fingers slowly interlaced with each other as the distance of their bodies closed in, an almost, hug.

A constant tempo was created through their moving feet as they moved back and forth. Meiko looked down at their steps happily as Luka stared at her with an unnoticed passion and tenderness reflecting on her sky-blue eyes.

It wasn’t the right choreography, not even close; but it didn’t matter to them at that moment.

As they moved and twirled around the practicing room, they didn’t bother to steal a single glance at the mirror that was witnessing it all.

The joyful melody of their synchronized laughter accompanied their waltz as a background music.

  
  
  


Kaito sobbed quietly to himself.

He had managed to escape all the commotion by entering an old storage room. It was dark inside there; the only light source came from the corridor outside through the small gap of the door, that, for his luck: had a broken lock.

Spider webs could be seen in the extremities of the room and in some full shelves too, though he had managed to find a more clean spot to sit down, that’s, a big wooden crate box.

There was nothing planned on the schedule for him to run away from everything like that, not at all; but anxiety had struck him so hard, that an inevitably urge to cry grew on him. At this rate: his makeup was undeniably ruined.

He slowly hugged his knees.

People were probably searching for him for right now, they must be worried: he was going to ruin the concert because of his selfish emotions. Meiko was probably disappointed with him at this moment too.

Tears started to build up on his eyes yet again.

”Guess who,” a deep voice called from behind.

Panic struck him momentaneously as everything suddenly went dark. There was a firm grip around his eyes as someone blocked his vision with its hands. Kaito slowly brought his own hands to meet with the ones on his eyes, taking his time to analyze the voice that currently spoke with him.

”Gaku…  _ po _ ?” Kaito relaxed his tensed body as the other one chuckled in response to his, right, guess.

”Finally found you,” Gakupo slowly lowered his hands from his eyes. “Wow— You’re wet,” he uttered indifferently as he brushed his fingertips together in a way to try to dry them.

Kaito felt the heat that rose to his face in extreme amounts, his lips trembled in a thin line as more tears builded up on his eyes from the embarrassing words; haven’t he realized what he just said was simply shameful?

Thankfully, he was with his back turned at the other one, he probably couldn’t see his face full of nervousness. Though, through the awkward silence, Gakupo seemed to have catched what Kaito was so restless about.

“Sorry,” a chuckle escaped his lips. “Wrong choice of words, I guess,” Gakupo shrugged and hugged Kaito by the waist.

That didn’t helped Kaito’s current flustered situation at all. The only thing he could paid attention to at the moment, was the long legs holding him closer, together with the hands with purple polished nails wrapped around his torso protectively. It was a strong but, nevertheless, delicate grip.

”Do you know even know what personal space is?” Kaito mumbled with a pout.

”Ah. You’ve talked,” Gakupo uttered indifferently. “I can’t help it,” he put his chin on top of the blue-haired head in front of him. “We’re all worried about you,” Gakupo closed his eyes momentaneously. “... _ I _ was worried about you,” he tightened his hug.

Kaito felt his heart hammering inside his chest. A warm sensation spread through his entire body: they were worried about him, caring about him and, looking out for him.

Blame quickly took off this comforting feeling growing inside of him: of course they were searching for him, this concert was important to all of them, they could and, should not, let him ruin everything by himself.

”Kaito…?” Gakupo whispered softly as he took his head off of its previous position, his worry increasing at the dead silence they’ve suddenly found themselves in.

”I’m sorry,” Kaito sobbed. “I was selfish and acted on my own,” he hugged his knees, tightly. “You were all happy and excited for the event and I—” Tears streamed from his blue eyes, down his cheeks. “I’ve ruined everything,” he cried. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

**_”What do you mean by that?”_ **

Kaito shivered slightly at the unusual cold tone of speech of Gakupo; it did managed to bring him back from his engulfing emotions.

“The concert hasn’t started yet,” he continued with the same speaking manner. “How could you possibly have ruined everything already?”

”Gakupo, I ran away!” Kaito cried out with a cracked voice. “I cannot face them anymore! Miku! Rin! Len! Everyone,” he held his head. “...Meiko is mostly likely to be mad at me too at this moment,” a pained laughter escaped his lips.

”None of us can possibly be angry at you, what you’re going through right now is something completely understandable,” Gakupo stated with worry. “What are you so afraid of?” Kaito stopped crying. “I know it isn’t because you ran away,” Gakupo approached his ear. “...Isn’t it?  _ Kaito _ ,” he whispered.

The latter shuddered yet again; was the other one really willing to hear all of his current negative thoughts that roamed through his mind?

Kaito didn’t wanted to feel like a burden to him, not more than what he already felt he was being, but decided to take the opportunity he was giving to him to unburden his own bottled up feelings.

”I’ll disappoint everyone if I go onstage,” Kaito lowered his arms to support them on his own knees. “I’m not as good as everyone who put their faith on me may think I am,” he muttered with sadness.

“But we all have such great expectations on your potential,” Gakupo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Kaito sighed frustratingly.

”And that’s exactly the problem,” Kaito mumbled as he pressed his forehead on top of his folded arms. “People expect the best of everything I do,” he gripped on the fabric of his sleeves, tightly. “When I can’t meet up to their expectations,” his hold subsided. “...They give up on me.”

Gakupo stared melancholically at Kaito, who curled up and started to sob to himself yet again; what could he possibly say to him at this moment without hurting him even more?

”Kaito,” he called him with utmost tenderness. “Look at me, please.”

Kaito felt how his chin was slowly raised, how his head was turned slightly; he looked silently at the intense stare the sapphire eyes of Gakupo gave to his sad, blue ones, as if he was in some sort of trance.

The anxiety of the possibility that Gakupo could hear the hammering of his heart inside of his chest grew inside of him at every second that passed. They were in kissing distance, he could feel the breath of the other one brushing against his lips; how he couldn’t feel nervous?

Kaito felt his mind trail off from all the other thoughts he was struggling with previously, as if the only thing that existed around him at the moment, was the man looking straight through his soul.

“...I’m not giving up on you,” Gakupo pressed their foreheads together in a gentle touch. “I believe in you.”

For a brief moment, Kaito looked at him with shiny sparkles on his eyes; but it didn’t last longer: his gaze was averted to the side as doubt consumed him yet again.

“Don’t give me false hope,” Kaito whispered lowly. “Don’t say things you probably cannot accomplish,” he turned back at him with furrowed eyebrows. “Please, don’t lie to me.”

”Am not,” Gakupo answered with determination.

”Then promise me!” Kaito shouted. “Promise me you won’t be mad at me if I screw everything up today,” tears streamed down his cheeks another time.

Gakupo smiled with kindness at him.

”I promise,” Kaito closed his eyes as the other one cleaned his tears with his thumb. “But you have to promise me something too.”

“Whatever it is, then,” Kaito giggled slightly.

“That you’ll have more faith in yourself,” Gakupo saw how the small smile that the other one had on his lips disappeared. “You can’t possibly know what will happen if you don’t even go there,” he smiled sweetly.

Kaito inhaled deeply, leaning back to support his head on Gakupo’s shoulder; he pondered for a short period of time to himself, before exhaling almost the entirety of the air on his lungs.

”Let’s say that I’ll do that, then,” Kaito smiled softly to himself when he felt Gakupo supporting his chin against his shoulder. “I can only know what outcome there’ll be if I go onstage and sing with all my might,” there was a hum in response. “It could be good, I could be able to do everything correctly without many flaws, and people would be able to like my performance...”

Kaito smiled at the thought; just like in his childhood dreams: crowds and crowds of people shouting his name with such enthusiasm, the sound of his voice echoing through a stadium full of people who were able to get there on this day only to watch him perform.

“But,” he bit down on his lower lip as hesitation consumed him. “What does even guarantee it’ll be like that?” Kaito slowly closed his eyes.

”Nothing,” Gakupo quickly answered. “But that’s the joy in life.”

Kaito sighed tiringly. “And that’s what I’m scared of,” he mumbled.

“It’s okay to be afraid of the failure,” Kaito opened his eyes at the familiar words. “But you should not let that fear consume you,” Gakupo shook him by the waist. “Not to the point of making you give up of everything only because you’re scared of…”

”...Trying?” Kaito tried to complete his sentence.

”Exactly,” Gakupo hugged him, tightly. “You can’t possibly know what the results are going to be if you don’t try,” he closed his eyes. “They could be good, but you would’ve just wasted an opportunity to even know that.”

“There’s also the possibility that they could be bad,” Kaito exhaled.

“If they’re bad…  _ well _ ,” Gakupo chuckled. “At least you tried, and you can always do it again,” he shrugged.

”...Then I’ll try,” Kaito smiled sweetly. “Thanks a lot for listening to my drama,” he chuckled to himself for the other one smile satisfactorily.

”May I tell you a quick story?” Gakupo opened his eyes as he turned his head slightly to the side, staring at Kaito with the corners of his eyes.

The latter only pondered for a little while, before he signaled for him to proceed with an affirmative gesture of his head.

“What if I told you that Luka did the same thing as you?” Gakupo paused briefly as he thought about it a little more. “Well, not exactly, but close enough, I guess,” he shrugged.

Kaito turned his head slightly to look at Gakupo with an equally intrigued and confused expression on his face.

”You know the small break we have to change to our assigned costumes?” Kaito nodded at him. “At the time me and Luka had our debut,” Gakupo started to laugh at his own memories. 

“Hey, it’s not funny if I don’t know what you’re laughing about,” Kaito giggled.

“...She tried to escape by breaking the small window of the bathroom of her dressing room. We didn’t even heard it at the time it happened, we only saw her running away through the parking lot,” Gakupo snorted to himself.

An amusing expression took place on Kaito’s face as he snorted in a way to try to suppress his growing urge to laugh.

”She did got catched by the security staff of the event, though,” Gakupo chuckled. “It was a mess how they tried to bring her inside the stadium by force, it was like seeing a wild animal being restrained,” he finished with a scoff.

Kaito giggled happily at the story; he couldn’t have guessed the so famous and acclaimed Megurine Luka had such a silly hidden background. Gakupo smiled contently at him as his mood was clearly getting better and, also, brighter.

**_”Kaito!”_ **

Their heartwarming moment was cut off as they heard a feminine voice shouting in the distance.

Gakupo frowned at the inconvenience that just had to appear in such a perfect time, taking his chin off of Kaito’s shoulder; he decided to look annoyingly at the direction of the sound source together with the other one.

Akita Neru could be seen sliding over the corridor on her frenetic running, she took a quick glance inside their room as she passed through it. After only a few seconds she took a half turn and boosted the door open, harshly.

Kaito closed his eyes tightly as the lighting from the corridor entered the previously dark room, illuminating all the unnoticed mess it was and, all the dust it had.

Neru took really groggy and tired steps towards them, until she decided to make a small pause right in front of them, a way for her to try to catch her own breath as she supported her hands on her bended knees.

From all her sweating, Kaito could deduce she was probably going through the entire stadium like that, since she was always the athletic type.

”Finally found you! The concert is about to start!” Neru took shallow breaths. “This room doesn’t have any speakers, so I guess you haven’t heard it,” she straightened her back and panted breathlessly. “The yellow rat announced you and your sister had gone missing, so I went searching for yo—”

Neru arched a brow as she paid utmost attention at how close they currently were.

Kaito was involved in a way too protective hug of one of her bosses, Kamui Gakupo, who looked at her like she was some sort of threat: ready to defend the person on his arms at any cost. It wasn’t something she would expect to see friends doing, it was more like what a couple would do and act towards each other.

Her hand was brought up her chin as she was visibly deep in thought.

One more thing she had to considerate: Kaito was a really shy person ever since she had met him. If he couldn’t even let her, a trustworthy, childhood friend, hug him in public, without getting extremely flustered, why would he let a coworker get so close to him?

What she had missed?!

”Aren’t you two... a little _ too  _ close?” Neru mumbled nervously after noticing the awkward silence, even though it lasted only a few seconds.

”Who’s the  _ yellow rat _ ?” Gakupo quickly diverted the subject and narrowed his eyes at her.

Neru shuddered; the words that she had uttered unconsciously only moments ago were being bringed up as a topic. Panic struck her as the possibility of losing her job came to light. It wasn’t her fault she said that automatically!

Kaito looked alternatively between his childhood friend and Gakupo; she was trying to find a convincing way to explain herself, yet, he was only doubting and teasing her as she begged him to not tell Len about how she spoke of the latter behind his back.

The atmosphere around them was turning into a light one; Kaito mentally thanked Neru for that as he smiled to himself, contently.

”Neru,” Kaito gathered their attention. “Can you do me a small favor?” He clasped his hands as she rose a brow at him. “I ended up…  _ ruining _ my makeup,” a slightly nervous laughter escaped his lips. “As you can see by the blurs on my eyes,” Kaito pointed out.

Neru saddened her gaze.

”Ooh sweetie… were you crying?” Akita leaned over to took hold of both of his cheeks. “It was someone who made you cry? Who made you cry? Have them beaten you?” Neru started to bombard him with questions. “Can I beat them up for you? Was it  _ him _ ?”

A threatening and, menacing glare was shot by Neru towards Gakupo, who looked at her with a defiant and confident expression.

”N— No! It wasn’t him,” Kaito quickly waved both of his hands to try to calm down the intense situation. “He actually…” Heat gathered on his face as he averted his gaze to the side. “...Helped me out with my mood,” Kaito mumbled softly.

He started to wonder if he had said something wrong as Neru watched him quietly for a few moments; she glanced with the corners of her eyes at a calm, yet, triumphantly smirking Gakupo before cutting off the expectant silence.

”Then it’s  _ all _ right if you’re alright!” Neru smiled and pinched his cheeks harshly for Kaito to whine. “You don’t need to worry about the makeup, it’ll be a pleasure for me to help you out.”

Neru grasped both of his hands to pull him up towards her; it went unnoticed by Kaito how Gakupo narrowed his eyes at her at the loss and she only shot a triumphant smug towards him.

“Meet me at my storage room,” Neru told her friend. “I’ll make sure you’ll be the prettiest girl in this whole stadium!” Kaito paled as she beamed happily.

”I don’t want that!” He panicked and tried to break free from her hold.

Gakupo watched silently as Neru laughed and playfully patted Kaito on his back. It was nice seeing how he acted close to someone he knew for years and already had a lot of intimacy with. That alone made himself wonder if he could soon get to the same level as her too.

He didn’t want to lose Kaito for someone else.

Neru seemed to be showing her friend some directions towards her makeup room with some weird gestures of her hands, since quickly after that, Kaito dismissed himself cheerfully and went through the way she motioned him.

The environment quieted after he left, so Gakupo decided that he should inform the others that he had managed to find Kaito already. Neru sighed peacefully to herself as her childhood friend leaved the two of them alone in the room.

**_”Hey.”_ **

Her sudden call alarmed Gakupo as he got up from his spot; she probably needed to talk with him in particular. From her tone, it wasn’t some random chitchat.

“Don’t think only because I’m nice with him I’ll be nice with you,” she smirked.

”...I’m not asking for that,” Gakupo responded coldly.

Neru snorted to herself. ”But you soon will,” she turned her head to look at him. “I can see your intentions towards him.”

Gakupo frowned at her.

“...And let me tell you I don’t have any problem with that if Kaito doesn’t have any too,” Neru shrugged, mockingly. “As much as I want to wish you good luck…”

Big and heavy steps were taken by her, decreasing their distance considerably; the atmosphere surrounding them had turned to something more cold and less friendly in only a fraction of seconds.

“...I also want to give you a warning,” her facial expression hardened.

”And what would it be?” Gakupo asked defiantly as he looked down at her.

”If you  _ dare _ to hurt him or make him cry…” Neru raised her fist in front of his face. “Be ready to get castrated,” she grinned threateningly. 

Shivers ran down his spine as the gruesome image inevitably came to his mind.

_ “Bye bye~!” _

Gakupo watched her way out of the storage room with a dumbfounded expression on his face; her mood quickly turned into a cheerful one as she started walking her way to where Kaito was currently waiting patiently for her.

  
  
  


The crowds of people going wild at the music being blasted at its full potential on the stadium was enough to bring the adrenaline of anyone up.

Green glow sticks waved left and right to the beat of the music. Even if it was limited for the few minutes of a determined song, anyone who got onstage was able to create their own world through their voices.

Lights went off as the music came to an end and the singer who was previously performing waved enthusiastically at them as she walked offstage. The thrilled shouting of the crowd lasted for a few more moments before ceasing, as all waited expectantly for the next song to start.

Never seen before red and blue colors in the concerts of the company took their place in the atmosphere proportioned by the spotlights. Two unknown figures rose to the stage to grab the attention of the entirety of the stadium.

The confused expressions of many were quickly turned into excited ones as their voices echoed throughout the whole environment in a blast of diversified emotions. Crowds of people cheered to the beat of the music as the two singers sung with all their mighty passion.

”They grow up so fast,” Miku cried backstage as she watched Kaito and Meiko perform.

”What are you now? Their mother?” Rin scoffed amusingly at her with an arched brow.

”But can’t you see, Rinny?!” Miku threw herself at her side to hug her by the shoulders. “I’ve teached them everything they know to this day! There’s no way I wouldn’t be proud of the product of all my teachings,” she gestured dramatically with her free hand.

Luka chuckled at their silly chattering with her arms crossed.

”Wow, you do sound like a single mother sometimes,” there was no bitterness on her joke, everyone was equally happy at that moment. “This is such an especial day for them,” Luka smiled sweetly towards the duo currently performing.

Gakupo nodded at her words.

”...I think we’re all glad that everything from before was finally settled,” he watched their performance with a nostalgic look on his face. “This brings back so many memories...”

Both of the two oldests of the group closed their eyes momentaneously as they remembered their own time to shine, the good and bad emotions they’ve gone through on the day of their debut.

Luka shivered slightly as the memory of the small incident that she, herself, caused on the day of her own debut spammed inside her head.

”We should really get back to this like the good old times,” Luka muttered to shake off her thoughts. Gakupo nodded in concordance.

”Yeah so you two lovesick idiots can make duets with them,” Gumi smirked as Miku and the twins giggled childishly at her words.

Gakupo and Luka blinked several times, without taking their eyes of the stage: her words fell into them as a bucket full of cold water.

“And you can cut off the old hag stuff,” Gumi dismissed with her hand. “It only made a few months since you two decided to distance yourselves from the music industry.”

”What did you just…” Luka turned her whole body towards Gumi, carefully. Heat gathered on her cheeks. “Since when did you… realized that?” Luka asked anxiously with trembling hands.

“The fact that you’re old?” Gumi rose a brow. “Since always,” she shrugged.

“Not that!” Luka shouted with a bright red face. “T— The  _ other _ thing!”

”Since, like,” Megpoid faked her innocence by bringing her index finger up her chin. “The first meeting we had months ago to plan on their debut?” Gumi grinned mischievously. The duo shuddered visibly at her words.

“You two aren’t discreet, like,  _ at all _ ,” Len mocked. “It’s actually no surprise we noticed it,” his twin sister chuckled; she was the first one to point out the lovesick gazes they unconsciously gave towards the siblings.

”I…” Luka tried to utter something in her defense. “... _ Dammit _ ,” she cursed under her breath.

_ ”Gakupo! Gakupo!” _

The latter slowly turned his head towards where the familiar voice shouted from; he had to back down slightly as Kaito threw himself on his arms into a hug. The rest of the group watched the small scene with curiosity as they turned their attention to the siblings coming backstage.

”How was I? How was I?” Kaito looked up at him with huge, sparkling eyes.

Gakupo smiled sweetly. ”You were spectacular,” Kaito blushed and smiled happily at him.

As Gakupo patted his head affectionately: the ones who were witnessing the scene close enough to them, could swear they saw Kaito wagging a puppy tail around.

”Man… now that was something,” Meiko stretched her arms as she walked towards them with a satisfied smile. “Good luck there,  _ diva _ ,” she high fived with Miku as she yet again, ran to go onstage with a beaming expression on her face.

They all heard how the crowd went wild. The so acclaimed Hatsune Miku got on the spotlight to sing her last solo, only before the ending performance of the concert with all the other singers that had attended today.

The cheerful shouting was clearly more intense when she was the one onstage.

”I know that just today was my debut but,” Meiko clicked her tongue. ”Is it bad for me to be a little jealous?” A pout adorned her lips.

”Guess we all have to got used to it,” Rin shrugged playfully as the other ones chuckled.

Gakupo felt how Kaito shifted on his hold. He let go hesitantly from their hug, only to watch how the other one stood beside his sister; the two of them watched the environment around them, then turned to look at each other and nodded simultaneously.

”Thank you all for today!” They uttered and bowed at the same time.

Luka laughed amused. ”Why are you thanking us?” Her arms crossed on top of her chest. “As far as I know, you two were the ones singing marvelously today,” Luka winked playfully at them.

”We’re thanking you two specifically for helping us out individually today!” Meiko pumped her fists, excitedly. “Kaito was right, we truly  _ can _ rely on you two,” she turned at her brother.

”Right~?” Kaito giggled happily with his sister.

The people witnessing them couldn’t help but smile dumbly at how cute their unintentional little actions seemed to be to outsiders; the siblings yet again nodded at each other.

”We’re looking forward to working with you!” A polite bow was delivered towards their seniors. “You two really are good  _ friends _ !” Kaito and Meiko beamed happily.

Gakupo and Luka froze on the spot. They felt something being crushed inside of them, with almost no single mercy even.

A small dead silence was held between the people there expectating the scene, one which managed to go unnoticed by the siblings, who were soon chatting happily with each other about how excited they were.

”Uhn…” Gumi grimaced. “... _ Awkward _ ,” she uttered before starting to walk onstage, they still had a last performance to make today.

The duo was left alone there with their own thoughts.


	6. To a Trip WeGo

Luka was having a productive day. If spending the entirety of your free time on your couch, as you contemplate your terrible life choices, could be called like that. Pessimistic thoughts annoyed her made already some hours.

The noises of the television she had turned on hours ago roamed throughout the living room. It was, another one of her failed attempts to try to muffle the voices inside her head. No matter how loud she would set the volume of the appliance: her consciousness spoke even more louder, like it was some sort of competition between the two of them.

Maybe it wasn’t that bad to get friendzoned…?

A tired sigh escaped her lips at the thought. After she turned off the unnoticed television, Luka could finally appreciate the peaceful silence that took hold on the living room. It was going to be tough for her to overcome this.

Meiko had got her in the palm of her hands, yet, she simply let her fall down from them.

A frown appeared on her face; she cringed at the corny line that she, Megurine Luka herself, the woman with the highest self-esteem of their musical group, the most secure of them, had managed to form inside her head.

Wonders that if she was really that desperate, to the point of even starting to get all poetic, occupied her mind. That did managed to take her away from her love delusions for a short period of time, at least.

A muffled groan caught at the back of her throat.

All of her annoyance was now directed at herself; her thoughts now asked her what else that woman could possibly do to her feelings and mind, if she only spoke to her, or if maybe, she was just overreacting, after all.

Luka swang her head left and right, in a way to try to think of something to distract herself with. A small snack wouldn’t be bad at this time; she was being bothered by those negative thoughts for the past few hours and, hopefully, the food would get them away from her for, at least, a while.

Luka nodded decisively to herself. Almost losing balance in the process, she got up from her spot on the couch and started to make her way towards her destination.

As Luka stepped inside the kitchen: she could see Gakupo with his back turned at her. The noise of pans, among other utensils, colliding with each other every now and then, made her deduce that he was, hopefully, preparing lunch for the two of them.

Because if it depended only on him, he would probably let her starve to death.

Luka shuddered at the memories of the countless times she would arrive tired at home, from her music or dancing rehearsals and, Gakupo would simply tell her to cook for herself. It was something that even gave her food poisoning several of these times, since, apparently, Luka wasn’t exactly the type of person who would be able to cook something edible.

As she stood beside him: she glanced disinterestedly at her friend with the corner of her eyes, just as he tasted the food with a wooden spoon. Luka took the opportunity he was seemingly distracted and approached her hand, carefully, to take a buttery biscuit from a jar.

Gakupo slapped her wrist before she could reach it.

With a small click of her tongue, a pout adorned her lips as Luka rubbed where she received the beat. Maybe it was for the better if she didn’t eat only for the sake of eating; who could tell what could possibly happen if she managed to turn that into a habit of hers?

Distracted with herself, Luka approached her hand unconsciously to the jar yet again.

Gakupo slapped her wrist with the wooden spoon strongly.

”Yes—?!” Luka jumped in shock.

Her adrenaline went up for a few seconds; the fight or flight instinct inside of her had been triggered by the sudden action. A few moments were necessary before Luka finally started to process the situation.

“Don’t _ever_ use that thing to beat me again! It hurts like hell,” she hissed at him.

”So you’ve finally decided to talk to me?” Gakupo uttered indifferently as he covered one of the pans. “You were so unusually quiet the past two days that I was starting to think you might’ve gotten sick.”

Luka rose a brow; two days?

”At first I thought it was because you were tired, the concert was rushed for us, after all,” he stated. “But since then, you were awfully quiet and, to be fair, you looked a bit down. I was expecting for you to tell me why,” Gakupo closed his eyes, momentaneously. “Even though I may act harsh towards you sometimes…”

The stupid, yet, cheerful and enthusiastic attitude Luka had: seemed to simply have gotten turned off on the last few days, like some sort of switch. It was something strange to see, he had to admit, so it was something inevitable for him to get worried about her.

“...I do worry about you,” he smiled frankly to himself.

A dead and uncomfortable silence was held.

The sound of the fire who flicked around at an inconsistent dance could be heard, how the covers of the pans would sometimes tremble slightly, just as the same time the small noise of the steam that came out from them could even be perceptible.

And Gakupo couldn’t possibly feel more annoyed by it; he had finally cut off the insensitive friend act, showed his worries towards Luka when he sensed she needed the most and, yet, she simply ignored him and kept quiet.

”Are you even listening to me?” As soon as Gakupo turned around to look at Luka, the tone of annoyance clear in his voice—

He saw that he had been left alone in the kitchen.

A growl caught at the back of his throat, before it came out as a sigh full of tiredness. As he stepped inside the living room in a way to, hopefully, find her there: Gakupo folded his arms, unconsciously, as he looked at the scene displayed in front of him with clear amusement.

Luka looked deep in thought at her spot on the couch: elbows sustained by her own bended knees and, clasped hands in front of her face; her eyebrows would twitch on her frown constantly, like she was thinking frustratingly about something complicated to her.

Although it was something pretty ridiculous for him to see such a carefree friend of his like that: he had to admit he was a bit impressed at her concentrated behavior.

“What’s gotten into you,” Gakupo sat down, on the free spot in the other couch in front of her. “Cut off the suspense and spill it out already,” he said annoyingly. Not exactly in the right mood to repeat his oh-so-considerable words from previously, he might as well just be straightforward.

“I’ve been thinking…” Luka looked down at the ground. Her fingers fidgeted slightly with each other, anxiously. “...Have we done something wrong?”

Gakupo rose a brow at the unexpected question. “What do you mean?”

“Like…” Luka straightened her back on the couch, as she took the opportunity to lean more on it. Her eyes locked momentaneously with his, but were quickly diverted to the side, just as doubt consumed. “Just be _friends_ ,” she mumbled sadly.

There was an expectant silence between both of them.

The small clock on the wall produced a small ticking sound, slowly and constantly. Through the window, the melodical chirping noises of birds could be heard outside. As much as the day was bright, their current environment seemed to be cold and gloomy, the exact opposite of it.

Gakupo simply boosted into a loud laughter, what broke off the silence.

“Go fuck yourself!” Luka shouted angrily, frustrated since he didn’t seemed to care about her worries. “I’m being serious here!”

“No, it’s just that— You’re such an idiot,” he laughed amusingly to himself. “Are you really upset because of _that_?” The mocking tone of his voice was clearly there.

Luka left her mouth agape at how insensitive his words sounded; she was sad just a few moments ago, but, at that moment, she was more likely to curse the entire world, together with him.

“What the hell?! Then explain me why I’m one,” she hissed bitterly at him.

“You’re disappointed because she called you a friend.”

“Why I shouldn’t be?!” Luka shouted, outraged. “We’ve been going out on dates for the past _months_! Yet, she doesn’t even consider me more than a friend!”

Gakupo subsided his urge to laugh; he took a look at his friend, who fumed in anger. “You do realize they’ve not been considering them as dates, right?”

“What’s that even supposed to me—”

Luka stopped on her tracks. The realization of what he might’ve implied just struck her; both of the siblings have been taking their date purposes just as the first time they met: friendly acquaintances.

“Ah, you’re right,” shame from her reckless behavior came, what painted her cheeks with a pink tint. “Gosh, I _am_ a idiot,” Luka sighed frustratingly to herself.

“Glad you noticed,” Gakupo sighed in the same manner. “Did you really expected her to call you her girlfriend if you haven’t still confessed yet?” He arched a brow at her.

Luka flinched visibly. The shame she felt amplified considerably, what made her cheeks heat up even more at the right accusation.

“Shut up! Let me be delusional,” she hissed at him, again. “If a girl can dream, then so do I,” Luka folded her arms.

“You overreacted amusingly,” Gakupo continued. “Drama queen,” he sneered.

“Gakupo! I’m your friend!” Luka shouted at him. “Be nicer to me, _jerk_!”

“Fine, fine,” the latter waved his hands in front of him, defeatedly. “It’s just that…” Gakupo watched as she calmed down, but still sulked at her spot on the couch. “I’ve been thinking about something for your plan.”

Luka relaxed her tensed up body almost instantly. Interest sparkled inside her; she leaned more towards him, as she demanded silently for him to proceed with whatever he was going to tell her. Sometimes she was a really easy person to persuade.

“You have a photoshoot marked for the next week, right? The one close to the coast,” Gakupo asked rhetorically. “We could use the opportunity to take them together with us.”

A few moments were necessary for her to absorb the information. When she did so, her mood brightened up almost instantly at his suggestion; Luka had seen and read enough fiction works to see where this was going to lead to, as she so called it: the beach trope.

Romance seemed to spark between the couple whenever they encountered themselves at these situations. Maybe it was because of the poetic, yet, romantic atmosphere the waves of the ocean produced; they collided slightly with rocks as they went, back and forth, like the feelings of many who dreamed of a, still, unrequited love.

Or maybe it could be because of the sun that would mostly likely fry your brains out, what caused any kind of coherent reasoning impossible under the heated environment.

“Gakupo, that’s an amazing idea!” Luka praised him, something unusual for both of them. “And I could also take the opportunity to see Meiko in a swimsuit! Double win,” she pumped her fists, excitedly.

“... _Nasty_.”

“To the beach we go!” Luka shot up from her spot on the couch. “I’ll totally make her fall for me there,” she asserted. “Meiko, wait for me!”

Hurried steps were taken towards the second floor. Gakupo watched carefully as she almost tripped down the entire staircase on her rush, but kept going like nothing had even happened to start with. He sighed tiredly to himself: at least her mood seemed to have gotten better for now.

The smell of smoke came to his nostrils. Gakupo slowly turned himself at his spot on the couch; he heard as the annoying, constant, beeping noises from the fire alarm of the kitchen echoed throughout the living room.

“Ah. The food burned.”

  
  
  


The sound of steam blowing could be heard across the station, the sound that announced the arrival of the train; and it was enough to make things more rushed than they already were.

If the people that roamed around at all directions possible, walked way too fast, it had just gotten worse. The heavy luggages being carried around by some of them made most of the stumbles to be caused, as shoulders collided with each other every now and then. Even though the unusual rudeness wasn’t necessarily proposital: it seemed like it; yet, the flow of the crowd had to keep going.

Kaito looked around, desperately.

The small fraction of second he had taken his eyes off of his companions, was already enough for him to lost himself in the middle of the mass. Now that his vision was even more blocked, it was almost impossible for him to even find where he was of the station at the moment.

Not only was it crowded, but also noisy. Kaito already spoke in a more quiet undertone, so his constant shouts were muffled by all the different noises coming from around him. It was frustrating.

He decided that he should try to wait for a little while. If he stayed in the same spot he was left on, instead of moving around, the chances of them finding him would probably be higher.

Watching the people move across his field of vision, a thought suddenly came to his mind: maybe they didn’t even noticed he wasn’t with them, to start with. At this moment, they were probably inside the train, waiting for him. And that wasn’t a very good possibility.

As the seconds passed, an awkward feeling brought by such thoughts filled him up more and more as he stood there, so he decided to try out his luck and move around against the overall mass.

Hordes of people would push him around constantly, almost dragging him with them in the process. As the direction of where he move towards to changed with every step, he felt even more lost than before. There was no way to tell if he was being distanced from his friends, or, being brought towards them.

It felt that confusing to Kaito.

His eyes were almost spinning, trying to find them and, process the situation around him as quick as possible. Such an unexpected situation he had gotten himself in had put a weird mix between confusion and anxiety on him.

**“Kaito, they’re waiting for us, hurry up!”**

The latter turned his head around at all directions, trying to find the source from where the shout of his older sister came from. He had bumped into several people along the way, the station was crowded, after all, the numbers of how many tourists that even had there was unknown.

A small whine almost escaped from him. He felt like crying out of sheer embarrassment: an adult man had gotten himself lost in a train station. In a desperate attempt to try to find them by looking at all directions: purple came to his field of vision, a familiar purple.

Kaito narrowed his eyes, slightly, as he tried to take a better look at the approaching, long-haired, man—

“Ah—! Gaku! Over here!”

His arm waved left and right, as he shouted as loud as he was able to. Gakupo was quick to notice him and started to move towards where the familiar voice came from. Kaito slowly lowered his arm as the man approached him with a warm smile on his face.

“Something happened?” Gakupo asked.

“Not actually…” Kaito turned his head to the side, shyly. Traces of shame from having gotten lost were still there. “I was just checking where you three were,” he tried to mutter an excuse.

Gakupo chuckled slightly to himself. “So you were lost?” He watched how Kaito flinched, before slowly nodding, embarrassingly, as he was seemingly caught on his lie.

Kaito felt how a gentle warm enveloped his hand, before being pulled; confusion struck him momentaneously, as he was dragged around by the other man. Embarrassment painted his cheeks with a pink tint, as soon as he noticed they were holding hands.

“Gakupo, why are you doing this,” his question came out almost like a pleading.

Gakupo turned his head slightly; he looked with the corners of his eyes at a seemingly distracted Kaito, who stared down at their interlaced hands. Noticing that, he couldn’t help but apply even more pressure into his hold on him.

“For you to not get lost again,” Gakupo smiled warmly.

Kaito felt how the heat in his cheeks rose even more, all out of sheer embarrassment. Yet, he didn’t know the source of it: maybe it was because the situation he had gotten himself in beforehand or, it could be because they were, simply, holding hands.

The time settled for the train to make its departure was getting closer and closer, so the masses of people were getting even more hard to go through. Gakupo pushed the people that came across their way slightly to the side, to open path for them both. As they moved among the crowd with such facility, Kaito thanked him mentally.

“Yo-ho!”

Meiko shouted as she waved at them enthusiastically, trying her best to catch their attention As they’ve finally separated themselves from the crowd towards a more, considerably, empty spot of the station, Kaito felt how he could finally breathe properly.

“Took you long enough, huh?” Meiko smiled cheekily at her younger brother. The latter didn’t noticed how she stared specifically at their, still, interlaced hands.

“He got lost among the crowd,” Gakupo answered her unasked question with a laughter.

Kaito turned his head to face another side, clearly sulking; he didn’t think his sister should’ve known about that small, yet, inconvenient, detail.

“C’mon, don’t be like that,” Gakupo swang their interlaced hands, back and forth.

“I would _probably_ make fun of it…” Meiko started. “...If I wasn’t as bad as he is in directions,” she finished with a slightly nervous chuckle.

“If you take in consideration how different this city is from your previous one, it’s really comprehensible,” Gakupo stated politely.

“You don’t need to be so formal with me,” Meiko dismissed with her hand. “We’re friends, right? If you want to agree with me by calling me clum—”

There was an abrupt end to her words; Meiko suddenly leaned a little to the side, to look at the direction of something, before a slightly worried expression appeared on her face. With her index finger, she pointed somewhere, repeatedly.

Gakupo slowly trailed with his eyes where her finger gestured towards to. He watched with curiosity at how Kaito looked around, confused, if his furrowed eyebrows could tell him that.

“What’s wrong? Looking for something?”

“Uhn,” Kaito turned to stare at them both. “Where’s Luka?” He asked with slight worry.

“Ah, Luka is already inside checking out for our booth,” Meiko quickly answered. “Apparently, walking so much in such high heels made her really tired,” she added with a shrug.

“Then we should not let her waiting so much, right?” Kaito smiled.

And that was just about the right timing. The artificial voice echoed throughout the station the announcement of the, soon to happen, departure of the train. People gathered in surprisingly organized lines to get aboard; a really different image from the chaotic one from previously.

Meiko followed the crowd, for her to climb up the small stairs of the transportation first. The remaining two that were outside had to wait a little longer in a more distant spot, since one of them didn’t dare to live up to the chance of getting lost again.

Kaito nodded decisively to himself as there were only a few people left with them. He started to walk towards the train, excitedly, before something suddenly pulled him back towards its direction. Turning around, he stared everywhere with clear confusion on his face, trying to find whatever pulled him previously.

“Gakupo…?”

There was no one and, anything around, besides the latter. Kaito got even more confused at the way Gakupo smiled at him: almost mischievously. As he rose his free hand slightly, Gakupo took the opportunity to point somewhere. With curiosity, Kaito trailed his eyes downwards the direction he gestured to, only to see their, still, interlaced han—

Kaito blushed furiously, quickly breaking the grip that joined their hands together with each other. He glanced up at how Gakupo chuckled slightly at his embarrassed behavior.

“...Sorry about that,” Kaito mumbled.

“I don’t mind it,” Gakupo chuckled; he took the excuse that Kaito was seemingly nervous to ruffle the blue-haired head. “I thought that was pretty tender, actually,” he finished with a warm smile.

Kaito only furrowed his eyebrows slightly. In a way to try to move on from the conversation: he decided to climb up the stairs of the train, what he intended to do right from the start. His brows furrowed even more, this time: in a frown, as he heard how Gakupo followed him while humming, clearly in a good mood from the embarrassing situation from earlier.

As the two of them finally stepped inside the transportation, Kaito glanced around, only to find his sister leaning against a door one of the booths had. Meiko shot a crooked smile at her brother, that managed to make the latter shudder in response. With slow steps, she made a beeline towards him.

“I saw everything,” Meiko smugged.

“Shh! Be quieter,” Kaito tried to silence her up.

Gakupo was still pretty close to them; he rose a brow at the small scene they were causing, as if he expected for some sort of explanation to come from the two of them.

“Siblings’ stuff,” Meiko stated nervously. “We do that almost every time.”

“Yes!” Kaito nodded frantically to her words. “It’s confidential.”

The siblings watched with utmost anxiety how Gakupo narrowed his eyes at them, silently judging their excuse, before he suddenly shrugged; that seemed to be enough for him to bite the lie. With precise attention, the two of them watched how Gakupo turned around, starting to make his way towards the direction of their booth, where Luka was currently waiting.

They sighed simultaneously, in sheer relief. With a few glances at their environment, the siblings closed a little bit of distance between them, leaning more towards each other to talk in a more silent way.

“...You two were holding hands!” Meiko suddenly squealed, careful to not make much more noise. “You know you just wasted an opportunity, right?”

“Of course I know it!” Kaito pouted. “...But that was simply embarrassing,” he almost whined.

“Well, we can talk more about that when we arrive home,” Meiko straightened her back; she cleared her throat, to resume to her usual voice tone. “Let’s go, they’re waiting for us.”

Kaito nodded to his sister.

Both took their own slightly hurried steps to go towards their booth. Its location had been specified earlier that same week, by Gakupo, when he invited the two of them for a trip through the telephone.

Muffled steps by the red carpet the inside of the train had could be heard. Just as they walked throughout the wagon, the siblings watched through the small windows with curiosity. Most people had already settled themselves inside their own private booths, also expectating for the, soon to happen, departure of the train.

They stopped on their tracks, abruptly.

Gakupo stood in the entrance of their booth, hand still on the door handle. What caught the most attention was his facial expression: somehow, an angry mix, between confused and disgusted. Both of the siblings stole a glance at each other, momentaneously, before both took a few, final steps, for the two of them to stand at the entrance of their boo—

**“Fuck, window! Open already!”**

Time seemed to have stopped at that moment.

Astonishment took place on their faces. The three of them watched how Luka tried to open the window, without any single trace of delicacy, even. Small and light scratches could be seen throughout the glass window, as she had seemingly made them all by herself with her own fingernails. It was, probably, the product of her failed attempts to try to grasp the flat handle the window had.

**_“Gakupo!”_ **

Luka suddenly turned around to start to look out for her best friend. At that, she seemed to finally have noticed there were people watching her. A little bit of heat, somehow, gathered on her cheeks. But it didn’t lasted longer than they expected to; she frowned.

“So you were standing there... watching me struggle... _in silence_?!” Luka shouted.

Even though the it was directed at Gakupo, both of the siblings flinched too. The frustration in her voice was clear to all of them and, the shrieking tone she used to scold him was, to say at least, almost deafening.

“Help me out with this, will you?” Luka groaned as she tried to pull the window open yet again.

An annoyed growl coming from Gakupo turned the siblings’ attention towards him. Their eyes trailed along as he made his way towards her. With no delicacy either, he pulled Luka aside, who bounced as she fell into the comfy seat. In one angry pull, he managed to boost the window open.

“Satisfied?” Gakupo sneered bitterly.

“Yes, very much, thank you,” Luka stretched her whole body; she closed her eyes, lazily.

Her heels collided against the table that there was in the middle on their booth, loudly. As he analyzed his current situation, Gakupo frowned: he was cornered. He wanted to pull her legs aside, away from the table, for open a little bit of path for him to pass through.

He knew Luka pretty well, though: she was definitely going to make a fuss about it too.

Hesitation and doubt came and went in a matter of seconds. Gakupo simply sighed to himself, tiredly; since apparently it was the only option he had, he sat down on the seat closer to the window.

During the entirety of the scene these two caused, Kaito and Meiko stared in sheer silence. They started to feel like the duo hadn’t even noticed they were there, even. It was an uneasy feeling, that came mostly in the form of confusion for the two of them.

“What?” Luka opened one of her eyes to stare at the siblings. “C’mon~! Don’t simply stand there awkwardly like the first time we met,” with a grin, she nodded at the seats on the opposite side of hers.

Each one of the siblings stole a glance at the other one. The sudden, stupid, arguments and fights Gakupo and Luka had between them, was something they still got to get used to. As they started to make their way towards their seats, both Kaito and Meiko almost tripped over, as the train suddenly shook, announcing its departure.

“Finally,” Gakupo uttered to himself.

  
  
  


Tall buildings, stores and crowds, all were soon replaced by a more natural version of itselves. Through the train window, the scenery of huge trees from the countryside came and went, constantly, what made it in almost unrecognizable blobs of colors. The velocity of the transportation was fast enough for it to be blurred.

Gakupo enjoyed the soft and refreshing breeze that brushed against his face; eyes closed almost unconsciously, as he felt how his long, purple strands of hair floated slightly with the rhythm of the wind. It was a calming and peaceful environment, the silence that surrounded him was something that encouraged anyone to be carried away by their own thoughts.

“Go to jail.”

“Whaaat?! But I just came out of it!”

“Apparently that’s where you belong to.”

“Mei, that was evil!”

Or that was at least what he expected for it to be like.

Gakupo furrowed his eyebrows slightly, the inconvenience the chattering caused to his peaceful silence was frustrating; he opened his eyes, as he leaned away from the window, to look at what the three people accompanying him in the trip were so enthusiastic about. 

“What are you doing?” Gakupo asked them, uninterested.

“Monopoly, can’t you see?” Luka hissed at him, annoyed since she was currently losing their little game. “Surprises me you haven’t heard it before,” she sneered bitterly.

As Luka turned back towards the board, she took the two small dices in a row. A lucky throw was all she needed at that time, since things weren’t going so well for her. Any prayers Luka made to the gods of luck would, hopefully, help her at that moment.

In a swift gesture, she threw the dices.

The intense, expectating gazes that came from the three players were put upon the two. It was like seeing everything develop in slow motion. They gulped simultaneously as the first of the two made its final positioning, before being quickly followed by the other one.

With a trembling hand, Luka took hold of her piece; she counted carefully how many spots she would have to move it, for not to make any errors, like some of the other times. A few moments were taken, before she finally placed her piece at its designed place.

“Ah,” Kaito pointed at the same spot she stopped at. “That one’s mine, pay for it.”

“No, I’m not! I’m already broke!” Luka whined, childishly. Apparently, luck wasn’t on her side.

“That’s how the game works, play it by the rules,” Meiko folded her arms, a firm grip on her fake money. Also not the best player, she wasn’t exactly in position to go against her brother.

“Then I don’t wanna play it anymore!”

“You’re only like that because you’re losing it!” Kaito shouted.

And that was enough for make the inside of their booth even louder than before. The three of the players argued about useless stuff. Gakupo pinched the bridge of his nose, in a way for him to try to calm himself down.

“Okay, can you two stop? It’s just a game.”

“No, it’s not?!” Luka shouted. “My dignity is on the line!”

“Just admit that you’re a bad loser already!” Kaito shouted back at her.

Both of them stuck their tongues out at each other, as childish as it would be called like. Meiko chuckled at how her brother looked so comfortable around their companions, just at the same time Gakupo rubbed his own temples at how Luka was… simply being herself.

The latter collected all the fake money and pieces of their game, only to be greeted with all equally confused expressions from the remaining three. In a quick pace, she counted if everything was in place, before she started to separate the fake notes to all of them.

“What?” Gakupo arched a brow as she pressed a pile against his shoulder. “Don’t tell me you really expect me to play this,” he frowned slightly as Luka nodded frantically at him. “... _No_.”

“C’mon, I’m just looking forward some friendly bonding moments,” Luka whined, she pressed the pile of fake money against Gakupo, until he finally took it with utmost annoyance.

And so their game started.

It was silent and pleasant this time. There were no silly fights over the distribution or the rules of it. Yet, that silence wasn’t something all of them were looking forward to, though. Meiko had some questions inside of her mind for an already considerable period of time and, since it seemed like the perfect time to ask them, she could use it to her advantage.

“So… how’s the music industry like?” Meiko started. “I mean, we already know a little,” she stole a glance towards her little brother, who currently payed attention to their game. “But I wanna know how do you two kept going for so long.”

Luka turned her head, what took her vision up from the board, only to look at Meiko in the eyes; she leaned against the back of her seat slightly, as she seemingly pondered for a little while to try to find a way to answer her question.

“I guess you should just act like yourself,” she answered in the most expected way possible, comical, even. “...And try your best to not be cancelled,” Luka chuckled at her own words. “What in trying to say here is that— Be yourself, but at the same time: do _not_ , got it?”

“No... I don’t think I do,” Meiko shot an apologetically look, accompanied by a nervous laughter.

Gakupo couldn’t help but chuckle slightly to himself; Meiko had asked a question, but Luka had made things even more confusing, what probably created even more doubts inside of her mind.

“You should only show your good side to the media,” Gakupo answered with a smile. Luka nodded enthusiastically at his words, at least he knew how to explain it better than her. “As unrealistic as it sounds, that’s the only thing that the media should know about,” he made a brief pause. “Or scandals may occur.”

Meiko slowly nodded; she had already seen countless articles about celebrities who had their careers doomed by their own actions, or simply by their past selves. It was scary to think that with a false move, she would also fall in that same path. Yet, for her passion for the music, it was something she was willing to risk herself to.

“So… just like the window incident in your debuts’ day?” Meiko chuckled sheepishly.

Both Gakupo and Luka laughed slightly at the memories. It had been a hell of a day and, that just had to happen in such a special date for the two of them. Almost like destiny played an awful prank, that was a memory that would came to haunt anyone present there for the rest of their lives.

“Yes, just like tha—”

**“Wait, how do you know about it?”**

Luka suddenly paled; she was sure that it wasn’t her head nor her ears playing tricks on her: just now, Meiko had mentioned her embarrassing secret, the one that she swore to take to her grave with herself. Of course, until someone present on that day decided to share it with the rest of the world.

“What do you mean?” Meiko tilted her head to the side; she didn’t catched why Luka looked so uneasy. “Kaito told me it.”

Luka shot a death glare at the latter, only now noticed. Kaito flinched visibly, he had been listening to their conversation for the past few moments, in sheer silence. Yet, even so, he didn’t catched why she looked so mad at him. Fear and nervousness filled him up as he tried to utter something in response.

“G— Gakupo told me,” he hid his face a little behind his scarf. “...Did I do something wrong?” He asked, almost like a plea, as he clung more to Meiko.

A deep and calming breath was everything Luka needed at that moment and, so she did. The cold air that came through the open window came to her nostrils, what brought a sensation of chillness that made her body shudder slightly.

“No, sweetie,” Luka smiled peacefully at Kaito. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she answered calmly. It was something a little scary for the siblings to see her acting so out of her common character, so they simply trembled in response.

And that feeling of uneasiness only grew inside both of them as the moments passed; they watched how she slowly turned her head towards Gakupo, that was seated on her side. The look on her face was the one of an animal that just had found its next prey, if they could compare it to that.

Luka smiled at her best friend with utmost annoyance; she had trusted him to not tell her secret to anyone, yet, there they were: in the situation she least had wanted to encounter herself in between. Her blood boiled with even more anger as he only kept staring at the board settled in front of them, not even caring about their current topic of conversation.

It was like he was defying her to prove he was wrong, wrong for thinking he was in the right side for acting like what he did was nothing for her to worry about. Luka narrowed her eyes at him: he was definitely testing her at that moment. If she surrendered herself to her instincts and shouted at him, it would mean that she would just have losted—

**_“Why did you do that?!”_ **

And she shouted.

“Did what?” Gakupo teased her with his indifferent tone.

Luka groaned audibly; she pulled and messed around with the pink strands of her hair in frustration. It had always been like that: no matter the situation, he would always come out of their silly little arguments triumphantly.

“Listen,” Gakupo sighed to himself, he felt tired. “I really needed to do that, okay?” He tried to reassure Luka. “It was important at that moment…”

And so his eyes trailed towards the direction of Kaito. The latter only blushed slightly, as he averted his gaze downwards, to look at the game board settled on the table. With a few pats on his back, Meiko chuckled sheepishly; he had told her about what happened that day, so she was definitively in of what brought him such reaction.

Luka stared with a done expression at the three of them. Now she was the only one in a bad mood and, she didn’t wanted it to be like that. Yet, the idea of Meiko mostly likely find her an idiot now, scared her to death; she stole a quick glance towards her crush, there was something she needed to know, urgently.

“Meiko,” Luka called her softly; she slowly lowered her face to meet with the table.

“What?” Meiko only looked back at her with her usual, calm expression.

“...Do you think I’m stupid?” Luka took a slight bite on the edge of the table, nervous.

And that put Meiko to ponder for a little while. The sound of fingers tapping on the board on the table could be heard, as Luka expected for her so awaited answer. Both Gakupo and Kaito also stared at her with curiosity, wondering about what was possibly going to be her final statement too.

Meiko suddenly clicked her tongue.

“Maybe.”


End file.
